A Light In The Darkness
by whoxcares1
Summary: Ruby Rose has learned many things - how to fight off Grimm, how to wield weapons most people couldn't even imagine the existence of. One thing she has yet to learn is the impact a single person can have on her life and those around her. This experience is a double-edged sword, one that many couldn't bear. Can she? (Ladybug/Freezerburn/[maybe]Crossahres. Rated T for now, M later.)
1. Chapter 1

"Oh, I'm so happy my baby sister made it into Beacon," Yang said while pulling Ruby into an inescapable hug. Ruby sputtered, sick of getting a face full of her older sister's cleavage every time she felt especially proud of her. Thankfully, Yang soon released her.

Noticing the amazing view beyond the see-through sides of the ship, Ruby walked over. As she did, she noticed a blonde boy running off to somewhere, face green and looking as though he had just vomited and was doing everything he could to keep it in his mouth to find a trash can or something related to that.

After taking in the view, she decided to return to Yang, but the ship lurched sideways and she was sent sliding backwards. She knew she was going to hit the ground, hard, but there was nothing she could do about it. But it seemed someone else could. Instead of being greeted by a hard floor, soft hands clasped around her arms and pushed her back upright. She turned around to see who it was. Her savior wore a black and white outfit, had long raven hair, amber eyes, and, strangely, wore a bow on her head. Ruby was almost mesmerized by her.

"Thanks, uh…" Ruby said, realizing she didn't yet know the girl's name.

"Blake."

"Oh. Uh… thanks Blake."

"You're welcome."

"I'm Ruby by the way."

"Ruby? Pretty name."

"Thanks." Ruby paused as if trying to figure out what to say next. "So… uh… Why are going to Beacon?"

This question seemed to end Blake's simple answers and actually make her think. "The world's a dark place - believe me, I know this firsthand. So, I wanna try to do something about it. You?"

"Just wanna help people," Ruby replied.

"That's noble, I guess. A little naive though."

"Naive?"

"It sounds simple enough to do, but that's far from the truth."

"Well that's our job, right?"

"Yeah, I guess. Still though, it's much easier said than done," Blake resigned.

"Don't doubt it. Anyways-" Ruby was cut off by a news broadcast. It explained her fight with Roman and how he escaped. When it was over, Blake was almost in awe.

"That was _you_?"

"Yep."

Blake could hardly believe it. Ruby - a cheery girl who she had to doubt would harm a fly - held her own against a major criminal, and might've even won had his escape not shown up. "Wow. I have to doubt _I_ could've pulled that off."

"Guess Ozpin was right to put me here early then."

Blake couldn't believe her ears - both sets of them. "Early?"

"Yeah. I was supposed to be at Signal for two more years. Instead, here I am."

Okay… she could understand someone like herself _mayyybe_ holding off Roman, but Ruby - someone who was two whole years younger than her… That was beyond surprising. Beyond surprising.

Realizing her thoughts led her to stare off into space, she snapped out of it and looked to the small, happy girl in front of her. Vaguely recalling Ruby's last statement, she spoke up. "All the better - for the both of us."

"And Yang."

"Yang?" Blake asked.

"Older sister. Since I was supposed to be at Signal this year while she was supposed to be here, we were supposed to be separated for the first time in… basically forever. But, that changed."

Blake could already sense the 'big sister drama' that was going to ensue. Of course, she would never say anything even related to that, so she just told Ruby, "I guess you were right. Probably _is_ better for you two to be here at the same time."

"Mhm."

The Bullhead landed, and everyone started rushing out. Yang found Ruby in the chaos, grabbed her, and ran along with everyone else. Once they were in a semi-calm area, Ruby spoke to Yang. "So… Whaddya wanna do?"

"Well, uh, I've got some friends and their coming over here right now and gottagoseeya."

Yang's friends got her out of there almost as fast as they arrived, leaving Ruby beyond disoriented. She fell, but once again, it wasn't the ground that stopped her fall… it was a luggage cart. When Ruby looked up and opened her eyes, she saw a very angry-looking white-haired girl wearing a combat skirt yelling at her, though she couldn't yet make out the words. They all ran together. When she finally regained her hearing and focus, she heard "-have any idea the damage you could've caused?"

Ruby reached around and tried to get up, but the only places within her reach were covered by the girl's luggage. Still, she tried to push herself up, but before her hand even touched the girl's things, she heard, "Give me that!" and it was torn out of her hands.

"This is dust, mined and purified from the Schnee quarry."

"Uhh…."

"Are you brain dead? Dust! Fire, water, lightning, energy!" While saying this, she waved a vial containing the dust in front of Ruby's face. It got in her nose and eyes, causing the former to give a sensation that she needed to sneeze and the latter to burn. This, combined with the fact that she was still half dazed, made her groan unintelligibly like before, which seemed to only infuriate the snow-haired girl. "Are you even listening to me? What do you have to say for yourself?"

The dust, still being waved into Ruby's face, resulted in her sneezing. A fireball erupted around the both of them, causing the vial to go flying off to a location that neither cared about.

"Unbelievable! This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about!"

Ruby cowered down, trying to make herself as small as possible and not daring to look the witch in the eyes. "I'm really _really_ sorry."

"Ugh! You complete dolt! What are you even doing here? Aren't you a little young to be attending Beacon?"

"Well, I… uh… I…"

"This _isn't_ your ordinary practice school, you know. It's not just training and sparring. We're here to fight monsters, so watch where you're going!"

"Look, I said I was sorry, _princess._ "

"It's heiress, actually."

That voice… Ruby recognized it, but only when she looked over to see none other than Blake Belladonna that she remembered exactly who it belonged to.

"Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, one of the largest producers of energy propellant in the world."

This comment seemed to shoot Weiss' ego through the roof. "Finally, some recognition."

"The same company-" Blake almost growled that part, "-known for its controversial labor forces and _questionable_ business partners."

Weiss' face was one of utter outrage. "Wha… How dare you… Ugh!" With that said, she stormed off.

Ruby looked to her now-two-time savior. "Thanks."

"No problem. People like that need to be put in their place. What started that, anyways?"

"Yang took off with her friends who spun me around like a million times in a second. Fell into her luggage cart."

"Wouldn't want to see what would've happened if you'd actually broken something."

"Probably gotten thrown off the cliff," Ruby stated, almost matter-of-fact-ly

"I guess we both need to make a note to stay off her bad side."

"No kidding. Anyways, what were we supposed to do when we got here? Yang ran off, and she's the only one I knew that knew what was going on."

"Uhh… Ozpin's supposed to give a speech, then we meet in the ballroom with our sleeping bags and just sleep there for the night I guess. I think we're just supposed to roam around and check things out in our free time."

"Sounds-"

Ruby was interrupted by Goodwitch's voice echoing through the school. "Will all students report to the courtyard at this time."

"Guess you were right." Blake nodded in reply.

After a few minutes of walking, the two were at the entrance to the courtyard. The doors - like pretty much everything else in the school - were massively oversized and overbearing. The two walked through said doors. Apparently, almost everyone in the school had beat them there, and it looked like finding a spot that wouldn't result in the duo being crammed into a crowd or being stuck at the very back was going to be almost impossible. However, Yang was - for the first time in a while - Ruby's savior. Ruby heard her voice and looked over to her. "Ruby. C'mere. I saved you a spot." Ruby immediately rushed over, Blake in tow.

"So, how's your day been?" Yang asked her younger sister. Then she saw Blake and said, "There's my answer then." It was said in cheery sort of way.

"Think again, sis. Blake's been about the only good thing that happened today."

"Bad day already?"

"Well, you and your friends ditched me and sent me in a tailspin, so I fell into this really mean girl's things, then she started screaming at me and waving dust around, and I sneezed and literally exploded and then-" To Ruby's horror, Weiss was revealed to have been standing behind Yang, probably having heard all of her conversation. She looked as though she was going to scream at Ruby again, but Blake simply stepped forward and put her arm out to block the siblings,then approached Weiss. The two had a brief exchange of words which Yang nor Ruby could hear, but the end result was satisfying. Not even a minute later, Weiss was sent running off somewhere, and Blake walked back to the two, her face blank as ever.

"Was that her?" Yang asked. Ruby simply nodded.

"Good riddance, then. Anyways, you wanna continue your story?"

"Oh. Yeah. So, I literally exploded in front of the school, and that got her even more mad, but then Blake here came over and chased her off."

"...And you thought it was going to be hard to make friends."

"Guess I was wrong there."

Before any of them had the chance to say another word, the loud sound (basically the same as the one that had ordered the courtyard) echoed around. It was a man clearing his throat this time. "I'll… Keep this brief. You have travelled here today in search of knowledge - to hone your craft and acquire new when you are finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose. Direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."

This left the crowd with an odd feeling, though none of them could pinpoint exactly what it was. They didn't exactly have much time either, because Glynda approached the microphone and said, "You will gather tonight in the ballroom. Tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed."

The noise of the crowd picked up once again, with people talking about all kinds of random things. Yang, talkative as ever, decided to speak to Blake this team, finding it odd that she hadn't said a word. "So Blake, thanks for helping Ruby out back there."

Blake simply shrugged. "What else was I supposed to do? Besides, people like that witch need to be put in their place."

"Makes sense. I saw here for about two seconds, and she just gave me the urge to send her sailing into a wall."

"Ruby and I both probably wanted to."

"Yeah. Seems like you two are getting along pretty well."

"Surprisingly, yes."

"Soooo… Know anything about this initiation process?"

"I wish. Just hope I get a team that isn't full of morons or racist halfwits." The manner in which she said it indicated bad memories or something of that sort were resurfacing. She talked as though she was speaking from experience, not wanting to relive something from her past. For the few that knew her secret - or rather both (the one which she currently concealed and the one involving her past) - the reasons as to why she acted this were blatantly clear. For now though, those reasons needed to remain a mystery to her newfound friends.

"Don't we all…"

This little bit of darkness was lit up when Ruby cut into their conversation. "You guys know where this ballroom is?"

"Probably where everyone else is gonna be going later?" Yang suggested, though she phrased it as a question. It seemed she was just as unsure about its location as her younger sister was.

"Alright. What do we do for now then?"

"Whatever we want, I guess."

"Okay. Any ideas?"

"I've got some things I've gotta take care of. I'll meet up will you guys later," Blake said, walking off before any questions could be asked.

The ballroom was packed almost to the brim. Sleeping bags littered the floor, and it was going to be miracle if everyone didn't get stepped on at one point or another. Ruby and Yang were now in their pajamas (the former's consisting of a black tanktop and pants with rose petals and the latter's consisting of a yellow one and some black short shorts). After getting everything they needed set up (sleeping bags and pillows, etc.), Ruby decided to start writing a letter back to her friends at Signal. Yang asked what she was doing, so she told her.

Right as she was putting the finishing touches on her letter, Yang mysteriously got up, claiming she needed to talk to someone. Once her letter was done, she looked around. She spotted Blake sitting up against a wall reading a book. Yang being gone, she figured she had nothing else to do besides go talk to her raven-haired companion.

She got up and sat down beside Blake. "Hey. Whatcha reading?"

"Hm?" It seemed Blake hadn't even noticed her there.

"Your book. What's it about?"

"It's about a man with two souls, each fighting for control of his body."

"Sounds interesting."

"So far, it is. I'm only a couple pages into it though."

"Can I read it too?"

Blake was surprised by this request, but definitely wasn't going to say no. Blake had found so many brainless morons who just wanted to fight everyone or do some random, over the top things. Blake, on the other hand, had an appreciation for the simpler things in life. It seemed rare to find anyone who shared views like hers and that she actually enjoyed being around. As soon as she'd accepted Ruby's request, Ruby moved close enough to her to actually read the book, which also happened to leave not even an inch of room between the two. This didn't bother either of them, though, and they read well into the night, their only major interruption being Yang walking back to her sleeping bag with a red mark on her face, muttering "Ice Queen" as she walked past the two.

Later on in the night, Blake noticed a small noise right beside her. She looked over to see Ruby's eyes closed and her head on Blake's shoulder. Blake wasn't even going to ask how or why she just fell asleep right there, but it didn't bother her. The end of her reading time only came as a result of her eyes not letting her see straight. She couldn't really even think right, either - not that she was going to need to. As soon as she ensured she had saved her page, her eyes seemed physically impossible to keep open, so she, like Ruby, just fell asleep right there.

 **AN: ...aaaannnd done. Thanks for reading. This is going to (hopefully) end up being a long story. I'm going for a 'one new chapter per week' setup, but we'll see how that ends up in the future. In any case, believe it or not, this is my first** _ **actual**_ **fanfic that I've bothered to put anywhere online, and one of the only ones I've ever bothered to write. Reviews will be highly appreciated, be them suggestions, praise, or criticism. Now, in the words of the great Monty Oum, keep moving forward.**


	2. Chapter 2

"Awwwwwwww…. You two look so _cute_."

Ruby opened her eyes and vaguely saw the unmistakable figure of Yang Xiao Long in front of her, barely able to comprehend what she had said. She then rubbed her eyes, now able to see more clearly. Yang was already in her trademarked combat outfit. She then looked to her right and saw Blake. Last night's events slowly came back to her, specifically reading with her companion, then… Falling asleep on her shoulder? Ruby could hardly believe that had happened, but her memory wasn't going to betray her. She looked back to Yang, remembering what her sister had just said, then recalling last night's events once more, finally realizing the meaning behind what Yang had said. Yang was never going to let this go, although even Ruby did have to admit Blake _was_ kinda cute.

Ruby got up, still somewhat drowsy, and keeled before Blake. "Hey. Blake. Wake up. Initiation, remember?"

Blake's amber eyes fluttered open. She looked around, Ruby's words still a little cloudy in her mind. However, it seemed she Blake's mind tended to awaken faster than her companion's, because she almost immediately got up and went to find her gear.

Ruby looked to Yang, who simply said, "Fun night?" with a smirk on her face.

"Don't even-"

"Hey, I'm just saying, you got lucky. First night knowing a girl and you two end up falling asleep together."

" _Yang_ …" Ruby's voice got low - almost to the point of being a growl.

"Fine, I'll lay off. Just go get ready."

"For years, you have trained to become warriors. And today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest." Ozpin, ending his little speech for the moment, sipped his coffee and took a step back, giving Goodwitch the spotlight.

"Now, I'm heard all of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams. Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates. _Today._ "

This statement caused mixed reactions. Some were happy they'd be getting this over with. Others, like Ruby, were not so sure they were ready for this.

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon, so it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well."

Ruby freaked out even more.

"That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

Ruby thought she was going to die of panic.

"After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You _will_ meet opposition along the way. Do not not hesitate to destroy anything in your path, or you _will_ die. You will be monitored and graded for the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item - as well as your standing - and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"

"Yeah, um, sir-"

"Good. Now, take your positions."

Everyone took a combat stance. Everyone besides Jaune, anyway. "Um, sir. I have a question."

The first student - Weiss on this case - was launched.

"So this landing strategy thing-"

Two more were launched.

"What is it? Your like… Dropping us off or something?"

Another two headed for the sky.

"No. You will be falling," Ozpin replied.

"Oh, I see… So, like… Did you hand out parachutes for us?"

Four more - including Nora - were launched.

"No. You will be using your own landing strategy."

Cardin was next.

"Huh… That…"

Yang winked at Ruby before putting on her sunglasses. The two launched almost simultaneously.

"So, umm, what exactly is a landing strategyy- _yyyyyyyyyyyyyy_?" Jaune said, launched into the air mid-sentence. Ozpin and Glynda looked off in the distance, somewhat feeling sorry for Jaune, but mostly just to observe their new students.

To all those in the air - except the certain aforementioned blonde - this was a chance to show off their skills. Yang and Ruby did things like use their guns to slow their descent, while the rest had varying ways. Almost everyone ended up using the trees in one way or another. Ruby ended up hooking the blade of Crescent Rose on the tree trunk, spinning around it, then going for a graceful landing.

Thankfully, the Grimm hadn't infested her landing zone, so she was in the clear for the moment. Using her semblance to her advantage, she took off, moving much faster than the rest.

 _I hope I get partnered with Yang or-_ her train of thought was cut off by her slamming into something, obviously not having been paying attention. Now on the ground and dazed (though having been protected from any physical damage by her aura), she looked around to see the cause of the incident. It seemed the world completed her thought for her, because she saw a certain cat faunus standing before her, hand outstretched. Seeing this, she smiled, and graciously took Blake's hand to get up, blushing slightly.

Before either had the chance to say a word, 5 Ursas and a Beowolf appeared, surrounding them. Ruby went on the offensive first. The first Ursa fell almost immediately by her scythe blade sinking deep into its skull. Meanwhile, Blake adopted a defensive strategy, making them come to her. One lunged, but she angled her gun to shoot it in the side, knocking it slightly off course. It almost got past her, but, while it was sailing through the air, her blade pierced its back, sinking down to the blade's hilt. It vanished, like all Grimm do after death. This seemed to enrage the rest of the pack. Two more charged Blake, from in front of her and from behind her. They would've had her, but Ruby's ever-handy semblance allowed her to grab Blake by her hand and pull her away. The two Ursas slammed into each other and dazed themselves. Ruby and Blake took the opportunity and pounced almost immediately. Ruby put her scythe blade through its back, and Blake, cat-like as ever, literally pounced on its back, sinking her blade in deep. The two vanished almost simultaneously. This left two to contend with - the last Ursa and the Beowolf.

Blake scaled a tree and perched herself on a branch. She shoved a blade deep into the tree's trunk, then released the ribbon from her wrists, the other half of her weapon in hand. "Ruby! Get it closer!"

Ruby looked back and nodded. She shot at the Ursa once to anger it. Once it started chasing her, she ran towards Blake. Once in range, Blake jumped down, landing on its back and ending its existence with one fell swoop. Ruby wondered why Blake had kept one blade in the tree, but then got the idea when she saw the Beowolf was on the other side. She activated her semblance, scaled the tree, then grabbed the blade, dislodged it, and went to towards the ground as fast as she could. The force she put behind was going to heavily damage her aura, and she knew it, but with these Grimm taken care of, it would have time to regen. The speed she was going at catapulted Blake towards the Beowolf, and Blake held her blade straight in front of her. It hit the Beowolf hard enough to take it down right then and there.

Both were panting heavily, trying to regain their breath. "Good… Plan… Blake…"

"Thanks… You okay? That fall looked… like you hit… pretty hard."

"I'm fine... Aura… Took the hit…"

"Good… On to the relic… I guess…?"

"Yeah."

After trudging through the forest with minimal resistance, the duo had finally arrived at the relic - mainly due to hearing the scream of a certain blonde guy. Once they had arrived, it was apparent many others had as well. Yang and (Ruby almost fainted at this sight) Weiss arrived only moments before them, while Pyrrha and Jaune had already gotten their relic (an oversized chess piece, of all things). Nora and Ren arrived on the back of a Beowolf - somehow - with Ren saying, "Nora… Please never do that again."

Once at the relic site, Yang proudly held up the white knight piece, exclaiming, "How about a cute little pony?", to which Weiss muttered something about "childish". Ruby - having no idea what any of the pieces were, and only knowing the knight looked like a horse - decided to take after her sister and grab the other white knight. Blake didn't seem to care so long as the got what they came for and got out of the Forest.

"Uh... guys? That thing's circling back."

Looking to the sky, they all saw Jaune's words were true. The Nevermore _was_ indeed circling back around for another attempt at getting its dinner. Behind them, Pyrrha, Ruby, and Yang all saw the Deathstalker coming for them.

"Everybody, **GO**!"

Ahead, the group spotted old stone ruins which probably been there for longer than most could count. Deciding this was their best course of action, they headed towards them. The Nevermore was about to block their path, so Ren told Nora to "distract" it. Obeying, she launched shell after shell after it, but that only seemed to enrage the beast. It sent down an unholy amount of razor-sharp, 20 foot tall feathers, but, somehow, she dodged all of them. This, however, left her open to the Deathstalker. It almost got her, but Ruby and Blake jumped in front of its pincers and blocked them while Weiss used a glyph to get herself and Nora out. Blake and Ruby, barely able to hold it off, jumped out as well. It slammed its own pincers against each other, buying the group some time.

They rushed to the only bridge of the ruins nearby, but, as they were sprinting along it, the Nevermore slammed into it, sending them flying to another. This one, though, was split in half. Nora, Jaune, and Pyrrha landed on one while Yang, Weiss, and Ren were on the other. The absence of Blake and Ruby worried the group - but not for long.

When they were sent flying thanks to the oversized bird, Ruby was sent on a freefall. Blake spotted this mid-air, so she sent Shroud over a stone thing and held onto Gambol. She caught Ruby during the latter's descent. The duo blushed a little, but they were soon back in the fight, joining Yang's group that was currently busy with the Nevermore.

The Deathstalker sent Ren flying into a stone wall behind them, leaving Nora and Jaune. Knowing this was an unwinnable fight, Nora ran a little ways away from Jaune, then slammed her hammer into the age-old stone, causing the entire chunk he was on to go flying back with the rest.

Nora, stylish as ever, stood in her hammer and pulled the trigger, propelling her back to the rest and leaving the Deathstalker to try to find a way over - a task which was nearly impossible, especially for a creature of Grimm.

Now that the Deathstalker was out of the fight, the Nevermore had everyone's sole attention. Ruby (of all people) developed a plan which the group immediately set into action. Jaune, Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora went off to distract the angry bird while Blake put Gambol Shroud into two stone pillars, Yang pulled it back, Weiss set a glyph in the middle of it, then Ruby jumped onto said glyph.

"Think you can make the shot?" Ruby asked her snow-haired companion.

Weiss scoffed. "Can I?"

The way in which she said it made it looked as though she wasn't quite sure.

"Can y-"

"OF COURSE I CAN!"

Surprisingly, everything went well. The end result was Ruby catching the flying beast's neck in the blade of her scythe mid-air, then using Weiss' glyphs to run up the side of the cliff. The top angled out above the rest, making her job even easier. Oversized bird's neck in hand, she ran all the way up the cliff, decapitating it and ending up at the top, looking down to her companions.

"...Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie. The four of you collected the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you shall work together as Team JNPR, led by... Jaune Arc."

"Huh? Led by?" Jaune could hardly believe his ears.

"Congratulations, young man."

Pyrrha gave Jaune a congratulatory punch in the arm, but this ended up toppling him over. Everyone laughed, but she quickly helped him up and they left the stage.

"And finally, Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, and Yang Xiao Long. The four of you collected the white night pieces. From this day forward, you shall work together as Team RWBY, led by… Ruby Rose." At hearing this Weiss, almost went berzerk.

"Looks like things are shaping up to be an… Interesting year."

The newly-formed Team RWBY had been directed to their dorm. It was pretty plain (a bathroom, four beds lined up side-by-side, and some curtains), but that was to be expected. After all, it was their job to decorate and everything else.

The girls planned on doing everything necessary tomorrow, but they needed their essentials tonight. For Ruby, it was… pretty much nothing. There was nothing so important that it couldn't wait. For Weiss, it was… pretty close to everything she had brought because she was a spoiled rich girl. For Blake, it was a small bookcase (it only had two rows) and her books. For Yang, it was mainly a bunch of posters and other unimportant things.

In the end, the room was so packed that there was no longer any space between the two beds on the left (unlike how it originally was). Yang chose the one on the far right, Ruby chose the far left. This left Weiss two options: the one nearest Yang or the one beside Ruby's. This was an obvious choice. That left Blake with the one directly beside Ruby's - not that she was going to complain.

After the four girls had taken showers and gotten into their pajamas, they got into their beds. Yang fell asleep almost immediately, and Weiss soon followed. Meanwhile, Blake and Ruby had no intent upon following suit. Instead, they found themselves continuing the book they had read the night before. They got through about 100 pages before deciding they were indeed human and did indeed need sleep. Before Ruby fell asleep, she could almost hear the taunts from Yang in the morning about her sharing a bed with Blake or something to that effect. She didn't care though. Why should she?

 **AN: Remember how I said I was going to update this every week or so? Well, this is what happens when you're bored of all 80 games in your Steam library and YouTube. So, due to my boredom, you guys get a new chapter 3 days early. You're welcome ;)**

 **Now cross-posted on AO3: /works/11428320/chapters/25605414**


	3. Chapter 3

Ruby awoke to snickering which she almost immediately recognized to be coming from Yang. She was perplexed for a moment, but, after opening her eyes and realizing that her and Blake had their arms wrapped around each other, she knew _exactly_ why Yang was acting this way.

She was torn between not wanting to leave to comfort of the bed (and Blake, though she wasn't even willing to admit this to herself), and wanting to get up and punch that smug look off of her sister's face.

In the end, she decided the latter was a terrible idea (seeing as how Yang was about a million times stronger than her), so she just laid there for the moment. The way she saw things, there was nothing better to do, and not many could argue with that. Yang could do whatever she wanted for the moment; Ruby was powerless to do anything about it. But, if Weiss' shower meant she could stay where she was for a few moments longer, she could've cared less - Yang or no Yang. She didn't know why, but she really just didn't feel like getting up.

However, those blissful moments had to end at some point. Good things can't last forever, eh? About a half hour later, Blake started to stir, and Yang resumed her snickering. Blake pretty much had the same reaction as Ruby. Difference is, she didn't feel like sitting there and dealing with the brute, so she got up, booking it to the bathroom for a shower, only to discover the door was locked. She looked to Yang, who simply said, "Ice Queen… Wouldn't disturb her if I were you."

Blake had seen the heiress angered before, and, as much as she would've loved to have an excuse to shut her up for a while, she was barely even awake yet. Anything related to Weiss would have to wait.

She sighed in defeat, knowing she'd have to deal with Yang for a while, and that seemed torturous enough. Then there was the whole 'decorating the room' thing they would be doing later - something that she really didn't care for. She had her books, and that was good enough. Why they insisted upon wasting their time for such menial things was beyond her, but she wasn't even about to try to understand her companions. Especially not this early in the morning.

For now, they were all doomed to the small room with nowhere to go. Yang was enjoying herself, but the other two shared no such sentiment. Quite the opposite, in fact. But, nothing could be done. As such, Blake returned to the spot from which she awoke, leaning against the wall and staring off into space - or so it looked to another observer.

"Alright, guys, now that Yang's done taking the hot water from half the people at Beacon, we can finally get to our first thing of the day: decorating!"

Weiss groaned at hearing this. Yang grabbed a mismatched pile of… whatever it was. Blake held up a suitcase, telling Ice Queen, "We still have to unpack." The moment she finished her sentence, the suitcase opened up, dumping every last one of its contents. "...and clean up." Normally, this would've infuriated her, but the items within it were going to have to be removed anyway, so it didn't matter that much. It _did_ contain a certain book which she definitely didn't want anyone besides herself to ever lay eyes on though, and she counted herself lucky that the rest of the mess concealed it.

Ruby and Yang both didn't need to be asked twice to decorate the room, and got to it immediately. Weiss had already unpacked almost everything she had the night before, claiming they were necessities. The other three couldn't comprehend how four of the almost exact same dress were necessities, but they figured it was better not to ask. Blake got her things set up the quickest (mainly because they were already unpacked and everything fit into the aforementioned suitcase).

By the end of their decorating phase, everything was where it needed to be - everything _except_ the beds, which were currently stacked in a heap in the middle of the room. Weiss was the first one to bring this up, a scowl creeping across her face as she said, "This is _not_ going to work."

Blake, for the first time, agreed, stating, "It _is_ a bit crowded."

Yang only saw one solution to this. "Maybe we should ditch some of our stuff."

The other three shook their heads. Too much time and effort had gone into this. Ruby saved the day when she told the group, "Maybe we should ditch the beds… And replace the with bunk beds!"

"That sounds _incredibly_ dangerous," Weiss stated, pessimistic as ever.

"And super awesome!" Yang replied.

"It does seem efficient," Blake remarked in her usual monotone.

"L-lets take it to a vote."

"Umm… I think we just did," Ruby told the heiress. Weiss sighed in despair, overruled by the people who had the least right to do so.

The three rushed over to the beds, and, not too much later (mainly due to Ruby's semblance), they were complete… If you wish to call it that. One was held up by some rather weak-looking rope while the other sat on top of stacks of books. Weiss was outraged. She knew at least one of these would come crashing down by the end of the day.

Ruby soon spoke up. "Alright. Next up on our list is… classes. Now, we have a few classes together. History starts at nine o'clo-"

"Nine o'clock? Its eight fifty-five!" Weiss cut in. She dashed out of the dorm She was a Schnee, and she was _not_ about to be late to _any_ class, let alone her first one at Beacon. Yang followed, then Ruby, then Blake Apparently, Team JNPR made the same mistake they did, because they almost immediately rushed out of their dorm and followed Team RWBY.

They _did_ make it to class on time, but just barely. They hadn't even taken their seats before Professor Port started his ramblings. Ruby couldn't focus on him, as he just droned on and on, boasting about why Huntsman and Huntresses do what they do and something about Grimm and all kinds of other things hardly anyone cared to pay attention to. Even Blake zoned out eventually. _Then_ , he started rambling on about his past. Everyone besides Weiss and _mayyyybe_ one or two others stopped listening after that.

"...the morale of the story? A true Huntsman must be honorable."

Ruby was balancing an apple on top of a book on top of a pencil while making some childish face.

"A true Huntsman must be dependable."

Ruby had fallen asleep sitting up.

"A true Huntsman must be strategic, well educated, and wise."

Ruby was picking her nose. At this point, Weiss had had enough. This was beyond ridiculous. Whoever thought it would be a good idea to put her in charge of _anything_ , let alone a team with _much_ more qualified individuals on it.

"Who here believes themself to be the embodiment of these traits?"

Weiss, fuming at Ruby and desperate to prove those who put Ruby in charge wrong, shot her hand up and said, "I do, sir!"

"Well then… Lets find out." Port seemed almost like he was mocking her. "Step forward, and face your opponent."

A pair of red eyes could be seen through the dark cage. Weiss immediately drew Myrtenaster and took a combat stance. Hardly anyone was going to cheer her on, especially not her team. They'd seen her for who she was.

"Alright. Let the match-" He raised his musket/axe, "-begin!" He brought it down on the lock on the cage. The door flew open and its sole inhabitant was revealed to be a Boarbatusk. This intimidated Weiss slightly (not only was it heavily armored almost everywhere, but she was going to have to do this in front of her class), but _never_ would she show it.

The Boarbatusk charged and Weiss struck its side. It did nothing to the beast but anger it. Weiss, however, was knocked backward by her strike being entirely deflected. She did manage to save herself with a well-orchestrated combat roll, though. Once again, she turned to face it.

"Haha. Wasn't expecting that, were you?" Yep. Port was definitely mocking her. He was going to pay.

Angered, she charged as fast as possible. Myrtenaster ended up getting stuck between its tusks. "Bold new strategy. I like it."

She pulled and could've sworn she almost freed it, but then Ruby said something which distracted her, and it pulled her rapier away from her and flung it across the room, then slammed into her and knocked her back and to the floor.

"Now, what will you do without your weapon?"

Weiss noticed it preparing to charge. Her face reflected utter terror. However, she managed to roll out of the way in the nick of time, resulting in the Grimm charging past her and slamming into the wall, disorienting. She used this to her advantage, sprinting across the room and grabbing Myrtenaster.

"Weiss! Go for it's belly! It has no armor undernea-"

Weiss had had enough. There was _nothing_ Ruby could know that she didn't, so all the mistakenly-chosen-leader could do was distract her. "Stop telling me what to do!"

Ruby's face developed a hurt look. Now, it was Blake's turn to have enough. All Ruby had ever tried to do is help, and this was what Weiss did. Berated and yelled at her. She was going to have a word with the heiress later.

Blake snapped out of her thoughts and looked back to the battle. The Boarbatusk had turned itself into a spinning circle of death and started rolling at Weiss. It seemed she was ready, because she formed a glyph in front of it. It hit hard and was sent flying back, skidding across the floor. It just so happened to land on it's back. Weiss saw her opportunity, jumping into the air, putting a glyph behind her feet, and launching herself at the Grimm, her sword piercing it's stomach, and landing gracefully herself.

"It seems are indeed in the presence of a true Huntress"

Weiss smiled. Hearing something like that from a teacher at Beacon meant a lot to her. No one else had volunteered (not like it mattered, herself and _maybe_ Pyrrha were the only ones that could be succeeded), and her victory didn't come easy.

Oobleck's class had been interesting. Firstly, there was Oobleck himself - a man who moved across the room in one second and talked so fast that his words were hardly discernible. Then, when Jaune had fallen asleep, Oobleck came over and asked him a question. Pyrrha tried to signal him something related to vision, but Jaune had said binoculars. Everyone laughed.

With that out of the way, next came lunch. They were all starving. Once they had all gotten their food, they sat down at the same table as Team JNPR. Weiss had grabbed some Atlesian dish that the rest had never seen before. Yang got so much that the rest couldn't even tell what she had. Blake got, among other small things, tuna. Ruby's consisted of 90% cookies.

Unlike the other three, Ruby's hunger wasn't exactly sated when she had finished her food, so she went back to grab some more. At one point, three guys started talking to her. At this distance, it was impossible to make out what was being said, of course. But, it _was_ painfully obvious they were hitting on her. Noticing this, Weiss looked to Yang and started talking. "I'm surprised you aren't going into big sister mode, Yang."

The blonde replied, "Don't need to."

Weiss couldn't believe this is how Yang would react. Her eyebrows furrowed as she tried to understand why this would be Yang's reaction. Yang struck her as the type to be the most protective big sister on Remnant.

It seemed she wouldn't have to figure this out on her own after all, because Yang, seeing Weiss' puzzled look, told her, "Let's just say she prefers the sheathe to the sword."

It took Weiss a little while to get what Yang had said, but once she did, her reaction was priceless. That was probably the reason as to why she worded it that way to begin with.

Blake, however, understood Yang almost immediately, and a slight smile spread across her face.

Weiss, for once, had been right. She had known one of the beds would come crashing down, and, sure enough, one did. Specifically, the one held up by a rope. It had slammed into the one below it, breaking its frame in half and tearing up the mattress. Obviously, it was rendered unusable.

This accident left three beds for four people. Not exactly an idyllic situation. Yang had already claimed hers, and so had Weiss. There was no way either of them were giving theirs up, so this left Blake and Ruby. It seemed the non-idyllic situation had turned into a rather good one for the two involved. Neither were going to complain. Sure, not having their own bed wouldn't exactly be fun. But, as last night had shown, one could work just fine.

The rest of the night played out rather simply. The team did their respective pastimes (Ruby and Blake reading their book, Weiss and Yang on their scrolls, the latter playing her music loud enough for people on the other side of the room to use), while one of them got their shower.

Weiss, excited at the prospect of getting away from the rest of them for a while, was the first one to take one. The other three were also happy to rid themselves of Ice Queen for a while.

Blake was next. As soon as she'd entered the bathroom, Yang stopped her music and looked to her younger sister. "Here I was thinking I , lucky most of the time. Then you fall asleep with Blake two nights in a row. And now, you two are literally sleeping in the same bed as each other. Guess I've got some catching up to do."

"Yang…"

"What, I'm congratulating you."

Ruby sighed in defeat. This really never was going to end, was it?

Deciding it'd be better just to find a way to block Yang out, Ruby grabbed her headphones, plugged them into her scroll, turned the volume to max, and selected Red Like Roses Part 2. Now Weiss was screaming at both of them, but they couldn't hear her. They just smirked.

As soon as the bathroom door opened, Ruby and Yang jumped off their beds and ran to the shower, neither wanting to be last (especially Ruby because Yang always took forever). Ruby had her Semblance though, so Yang was doomed to lose from the beginning.

The night ended in the same fashion as the previous two. Yang and Weiss fell asleep early (comparative to the other two), but they stayed awake. It must've been one or two in the morning before they realized they were too tired to read anymore. Blake put her bookmark in the book, then closed it and set it aside.

"Goodnight, Ruby."

"Night, Blake."

Finally laying down and about to fall asleep, Blake realized something. For a long time, Blake's sole companion had been a book. Few people like the Faunus enough to even consider being nice to them, let alone being friends. And those that had would never be there for long. But now, Blake saw that for the past few nights, the book was not her companion. Ruby was.

 **AN: First off, thanks to everyone who's followed/favorited my story (I think we're at 50 and 25 respectively) on and those of you who've given me Kudos on ao3. It's nice to see that, especially on something that's been up for only a week. Also, due to me having too much time on my hands, excluding this week, this story shall be updated on Mondays and Fridays. Anyways, now that my little speech is over, adieu for now.**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: So, before I start writing the actual chapter, I just want to say something: I never expected this story to get this big in this amount of time. It's been sixteen days since I first posted this, and so far, I have 69 followers, 37 favorites and almost 1700 views ( ), and, in 11 days, 3 kudos and 244 hits (ao3). Thank you - all of you. Now, with that out of the way, onto the actual story.**

The morning of the Team's second day at Beacon was much like their first. The only differences were not having to decorate (that already being done) and not being less than a minute away from being late to class. Yang was still Yang, and Ice Queen was grouchy as ever, but everyone had grown to expect that. It was almost a fact of life for Team RWBY.

Classes were as boring as the day before, and no actual work was given. Port rambled on about his personal exploits, Oobleck talked incomprehensibly fast. Blake swore the latter must live on coffee.

Ruby had acted the same as the day before as well, and this caused Weiss explode on her once again. She screamed about almost everything she could, ranging from Ruby's childishness to Weiss having trained for years for this to Ozpin having made a grave mistake. Both Yang and Blake wanted to throw her from the top of the CCT at this point, but Blake had one last idea until she was ready to enact violence. After Weiss' fit of rage, she had ran off to do something (the other three had no idea what, but they also didn't care enough to find out), so Blake panned to have a little chat with her upon her arrival back to the dorms.

About a half hour after leaving, Weiss was back at the dorms. However, she found Blake waiting for her. The Faunus was leaning against the wall to the right of the door, looking less than pleased. Weiss sensed something was about to happen, so she doubled her pace, wanting to get back inside (for once) as quick as possible. However, as she reached down to open the door, Blake grabbed her hand. "No."

"Let go of me!"

"Fine. But you're not going back in there yet. We need to talk." Blake did indeed let go, and, though she didn't make any attempt to block the door, Weiss knew better than to even try.

"Weiss, this needs to stop. None of us have done a thing to you and all you do is complain, whine, and scream."

"Really? You don't call Ruby almost blowing me off the cliff a 'thing'?"

"And you don't call waving dust in her face a bad idea?"

"I-" Weiss stopped dead in her tracks. She knew Blake was right.

"You're the heiress to one of the largest, richest companies on Remnant. You should be acting like you're prepared for such a responsibility, but all I see is a spoiled child who's mad she didn't get her way. You say Ozpin made a mistake, but you're just proving my point every time you mention that. That's probably the reason he didn't choose you in the first place."

"How dare you!" Weiss was outraged. Beyond outraged.

"Weiss, you know I'm right, like it or not. So, let me ask you something: do you honestly think acting like this will make Ozpin change his mind?"

"I- no." Once again, her raven-haired companion had a point. Weiss had to accept that, whether she wanted to or not.

"Then what do you hope to accomplish?"

"I… don't know."

"You don't know? So why do you continue to do this?"

"I just… It should've been me! Ruby doesn't have the first clue how to lead a team!"

"Alright, lets say you're right. Lets say that, despite what everyone else says, it should have been you. Let me ask you what'll do more: complaining like a child or being there to help her become the leader you think she should be?"

Dead silence. Weiss finally realized what she had been doing, and just how wrong she'd been doing it. She still maintained that Ozpin _was_ wrong, but Blake had a point. Acting how she did wasn't going to change a damn thing. It was just going to worsen things.

"Alright, you can go in. Just… please take at least some of what I said seriously."

Weiss kept her mouth shut and opened the door, but, surprisingly, she turned around and said, "Thanks, Blake." Walkling back in, she went directly over to her younger teammate, who was currently sitting on her bed doing something on her scroll. "Ruby…" Ruby readied herself for another incident like earlier. Yang sat up from her own bed, ready to beat Ice Queen within an inch of her life. Blake merely stood in front of the door, no one noticing her. She just smirked. "I… Owe you an apology."

Everyone was shocked by this. That was one of the last things anyone ever expected her to say. "Maybe Ozpin did make a mistake, maybe he didn't. But what I've done won't change anything. I guess I'm just going to have to… adapt." That said, Weiss flopped down on her own bed. She wasn't tired, but she needed to think, even if it was going to be extremely hard because of Yang's music being louder than the day before.

Blake casually walked back to her team, sitting down on her bed beside Ruby. "Where were you?"

"Dealing with Weiss."

"Thanks. I guess I owe you another one."

"I couldn't let her keep yelling at you for doing essentially nothing."

"Good job, Blakey." The duo was surprised when Yang of all people spoke up. It seemed she had paused her obnoxiously loud music for once. They couldn't decide what was more surprising: Yang not snickering at their every move or Yang pausing her music for once.

"Uh… Thanks."

"Something wrong?"

"No, I just… Nevermind."

"Whatever you say." Yang resumed her music. Blake vaguely recognized the current song as I May Fall.

"Hey, Blake?"

"Yeah, Ruby?"

"Have you ever… uh… been with anyone?"

The answer to this was, of course, yes. Blake had been with someone. One person to be exact, and what a mess he turned out to be. "Yeah. A while ago. He turned out to have way more problems than he was worth though."

"Whaddya mean?"

"It's… A long story, one I'd rather not get into. Some of the wounds he left still haven't healed. Most of them, to be honest."

"Oh."

"I might tell you some more some other time, but… Not now."

"That's fine."

"Thank you for understanding."

"Mhm."

A short silence followed. However, this time, it was broken by Blake.

"So… How about you?"

"What?"

"You ever been with anyone?"

Ruby's cheeks went red as her namesake. This was never an easy topic for her to discuss with anyone, let alone Blake. She didn't quite know why this was the case though. They'd grown close, so it _should_ have been easier to discuss with her than anyone else, but it was the opposite. "Not really. I had a few crushes in the past, but nothing ever came from them. I got moved ahead from Signal, so anyone from there isn't an option."

"Hm… Anyone from here?"

"Maybe."

Blake knew that any time anyone replied 'maybe' to something like this, it meant yes. "Who is she?"

"How did you-"

"Overheard Yang talking to Weiss yesterday at lunch."

"Oh." Yang was going to pay for this.

"Anyways, you gonna answer my question?"

"I already did."

Blake knew this conversation was going to go nowhere from here, so she decided not to pursue it… for now.

As for the rest of the night, it continued much the same way as the last few. Everyone made sure to beat Yang to the shower while the latter made sure to continue to annoy everyone with her not-so-quiet music. Blake and Ruby read late into the night. The morning came, as did classes, and then the night returned, the four doing things as per usual. This continued for awhile, the only notable exceptions being Jaune getting all buddy-buddy with Cardin of all people and defending the sorry excuse of a man. The next notable thing to happen involved the end of the first week. Besides the place just becoming much more livelier due to the students finally getting some time off (besides Oobleck's homework, aka the only homework of that week), Glynda had announced that the students would be heading to the forest of Forever Fall to collect some things. Some were excited because it sounded interesting. Others (mainly the girls) were excited because it was going to be 'pretty'. Weiss could've cared less. Yang was just happy to go somewhere new. Blake and Ruby were somewhat happy, but both would've been just as content staying at the dorms.

Needless to say, everyone had different opinions, but the prospect of going somewhere off of school grounds (besides Vale) was an interesting prospect. How everything would play out was up in the air though. As Ozpin had mentioned earlier, the year was definitely going to be interesting.

 **AN: So, sorry for not getting this up yesterday. I intended to, but irl shit happened, including my internet basically deciding it didn't feel like it wanted to work all day. Sorry about that, but here you go today… at 7 in the goddamn morning because idfk why I'm still awake. Also, as for how the story is going to play out: Volume 1 will be almost the same, save for a couple episodes. Volume 2 is where things will really kick off, both regarding the ships and the story in general. Volume 3 will diverge from canon a lot, though the larger and more important things will still play out. I have no clue for Volume 4, but I'm doubting it'll be anywhere near the same considering not much really happened in the show.**


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: So, here's the next chapter for you guys. Sorry about the short length of the last one, there just wasn't much to write for what I had planned, and if I had just meshed two chapters into one, it would have taken too long to write. Also, me being the nocturnal creature of the night that I am, I know this wasn't technically uploaded on Monday (couple hours past midnight), but meh. Close enough. Anyways, here ya go.**

Forever Fall was quite the beautiful place. True to its namesake, the leaves in the trees there were never green like in summer or spring, but none fell off as they would normally do in winter. Instead, it seemed they were perpetually trapped in a state resembling how they should be in fall: every color besides green.

This beauty was only matched by the danger of venturing too far off the normal path. Grimm surrounded the area, but, for some reason, didn't venture too close unless the emotions they fed off of presented themselves.

The Beacon first years had been sent there to collect the sap (which more resembled pure syrup than anything else). Everyone partnered up and were given two jars to get the sap with. This went smoothly for most of them, but some had rather mischievous partners, and others got partners who would repeatedly drink all of it out of the jar before the other could be filled… Actually, this only happened to one person: Ren. Nora was definitely a bad choice.

Jaune went off with Cardin and his team for reasons unknown to everyone else. This saddened Pyrrha a little, but she seemed cheery otherwise. The most surprising duo was, somehow, Weiss and Yang. This was a result of their two teammates partnering up, but it was surprising the two didn't just go their own, separate ways. Ruby and Blake would've both been surprised if Yang didn't come back with a broken nose or something. Weiss could barely put up with any of them, _especially_ Yang. This was definitely going to be interesting.

Besides collecting the sap, the only things they were told involved Glynda being there to make sure none of them died and to meet up at four o'clock. Other than that, they were sent off on their own. This lack of supervision definitely worked in favor of people like Cardin, but that would - as everyone knew - never lead to anything even resembling good. The day had been pretty uneventful until the fearless warriors of Team CRDL were seen running like scared little girls. Yang had stopped one of them and asked what was going on. They told her that an Ursa was after Cardin. Yang almost smiled.

Pyrrha, however was not so pleased. Upon hearing this, she stood in a rigid pose, dropped her jar, and muttered something about Jaune.

Ruby intended to go deal with the threat, but realized someone needed to be alerted. "Yang, go get Professor Goodwitch."

Pyrrha gestured to the other half of Team JNPR. "You two go with; there could be more."

Yang, Ren, and Nora started sprinting to the Professor while Blake, Ruby, and Pyrrha tore off to where Jaune and Cardin were. Upon arrival, the Ursa was getting ready to strike the fatal blow, but that just wasn't destined to happen because Jaune showed up at the last second and blocked its claw with his shield. His strength was clearly waning, so Weiss adopted a combat stance and got ready to charge, but Pyrrha simply put her hand up and told her to wait.

Once Jaune got out from under the Ursa's claw, he swung at its torso. It howled in pain. He charged multiple times, but every blow he inflicted was minor at best and usually resulted in the Ursa deflecting his blows, knocking him down, or flinging him to the other side of the clearing. After the fifth instance of this, he looked down at something on his wrist, though the others had no clue what.

After seeing whatever he saw, he charged again. This one was faster, but seemed more desperate. It seemed as though he was going to stab it in the torso and his shield was lowered. This miraculously changed in the blink of an eye when his shield was brought up to block its incoming strike, then he decapitated it.

"Uh… What?" Ruby asked, confused.

"How did you-" Blake began to ask, but got cut off.

"Well, Ruby has her speed, you have your Shadow Clones… My semblance is polarity."

"Oh, you can control poles."

"Uh, Ruby, I think she means magnetism."

"Oh, magnets are cool too."

Pyrrha turned around and started to walk away when Ruby asked, "Wait, where are you going? We have to tell them what happened."

Pyrrha turned her head with a slight smirk on her face. "We could… Or perhaps we could make it our little secret."

With that said, the trio walked off, leaving Jaune and Cardin to do whatever they were going to do. They all knew Cardin wouldn't dare try anything after what Jaune did for him, so they had no reason to be worried.

The next day started off quite interestingly. Weiss - for the first time they'd ever seen - was actually cheery. She insisted on everyone getting up early - on one of their days off - for reasons which they later learned involved something with the Vytal Festival. Blake and Ruby _really_ didn't feel like getting up for reasons neither could pinpoint. However, with Weiss badgering them for a half hour and the threat of Yang getting to the shower before them, they reluctantly left their shared bed and went about their morning as per usual.

The exact moment they were all ready, Weiss had them out of the dorm and was leading them to somewhere they had either not been told of or simply didn't remember in their dreary haze. Whatever the case, they followed the heiress for a while. Eventually, they came across a banner stretched across the street that read "Welcome to Vale". Upon seeing this, Weiss said, "The Vytal Festival! Oh, this is so exciting!"

"I don't think I've ever seen you smile this much Weiss… It's kinda weirding me out."

Weiss looked back at Ruby. "How could you _not_ be excited? A festival dedicated to the cultured of the world! There will be dances, parades, a tournament. Oh, the amount of planning and organization that goes into this is simply breathtaking!" Weiss turned around and started walking once more.

"Weiss, you really know how to take a cool thing and make it sound boring," Yang told the heiress.

"Quiet, _you._ "

"Remind me again why we're spending our Friday afternoon visiting the docks."

"Ugh. They smell like fish," Ruby said, pinching her nose to prevent the foul smell from entering it."

"I heard that students from Vacuo will be arriving by ship today. And, as a representative of _Beacon,_ I feel it is my solemn duty to welcome them to this fine kingdom.

Blake, in her usual monotone, told the rest, "She wants to spy on them to gain the upper hand in the tournament."

"You can't prove that!"

Ruby looked over to her right to see a shop that had broken windows with yellow police tape over them and two police officers out front. When the other three noticed, they looked at it as well. They decided to approach the crime scene and see what was going on. Ruby was the first to say anything. "What happened here?"

"Robbery. Second dust shop hit this week. This place is turning into a jungle."

"That's terrible," Yang said.

"They left all the money again." This time, it was the other police officer to speak up.

"It just doesn't make a lick of sense. Who needs that much dust?"

"I dunno… An army?"

"You thinkin' the, uh, White Fang?"

"Yeah, I'm thinking we don't get paid enough."

At hearing this, Weiss crossed her arms. "Hmph. The White Fang… What an awful bunch of degenerates."

"What's your problem?" Blake asked.

" _My_ problem? I simply don't care for the criminally insane."

"The White Fang is _hardly_ a bunch of psychopaths. They're a collection of misguided Faunus." Blake spoke as though she was speaking from experience. None of the others seemed to catch this though.

" _Misguided_? They want to wipe humanity off the face of the planet."

"So then they're _very_ misguided. Either way, it doesn't explain why they'd rob a dust shop in the middle of Downtown Vale."

Ruby was already getting tired of this. "Hm… Blake has a point. Besides, they never caught that Torchwick guy I ran into a few weeks back. Maybe it was him."

"That _still_ doesn't change the fact that the White Fang are a bunch of scum. Those Faunus only know how to lie, cheat, and steal."

Now Yang was getting annoyed too. "That's not necessarily true."

"Hey! Stop that Faunus!"

The four ran to the docks to see two men chasing a blonde Faunus with a tail. He perched himself on the side of the ship and said, "Thanks for the ride, guys!" before jumping to the docks below.

"You no-good stowaway!"

The Faunus, now upside down and holding onto a street light by his tail, said, "Hey, a no-good stowaway would've been caught. I'm a great stowaway."

A rock was sent flying at his face, but he just swung himself out of the way.

"Hey. Get down from there this instant." The voice came from one of the police officers from before, who were currently standing in front of him. His reply was given in the form of a banana peel being dropped on his head. He growled in anger while the Faunus swung himself on top of the lamp post, then jumped off and landed a good fifteen feet ahead of them. He took off, and the cops went after him. Team RWBY saw him making his way towards them. While he was running, he looked at Blake and winked. She had a disgusted look on her face and Yang seemed to have noticed, because she said, "Wow, Blake. Looks like you've got an admirer."

"He's out of luck then."

"Quick! Stop your talking! We must observe him!" The four started sprinting after the Faunus. They were gaining on him, but, as they rounded a corner, Weiss slammed into something. She was knocked down, but looked up to see the Faunus launch himself up to a roof and away from the cops. "No! He got away!"

"Uh… Weiss?" Yang pointed to what she had ran into, Weiss finally snapped out of chase mode and realized she had ran into and knocked down another girl. Seeing this, she jumped up.

"Salutations!" The girl exclaimed, still remaining on the ground.

"Are you… okay?" Yang asked.

"I'm wonderful. Thank you for asking."

"Do you… Wanna get up?"

"Yes." The girl suddenly jumped up, causing the others to take a step back. "I'm Penny. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Hi Penny. I'm Ruby."

"I'm Weiss."

"Blake."

"Are you sure you didn't hit your head?" Blake elbowed Yang in her stomach. "Oh, I'm Yang."

"It's a pleasure to meet you."

"You already said that," Weiss told Penny, obviously getting a little annoyed.

"So I did."

"Well, sorry for running into you," Weiss told her before turning around and walking away. The others followed suit.

"She was… Weird," Yang said.

"Now, where did that Faunus riff-raff run off to?"

"What did you just call me?" Penny asked, causing the group to turn around. Weiss couldn't tell whether she was talking to Yang or herself.

"Oh, I'm really sorry. I definitely didn't think you heard me."

"No, not you." Penny pushed Yang aside. " _You_ ," she stated, approaching Ruby.

"Me? I… Uh… I don't know what I… Uh..."

"You called me friend. Am I really your friend?" The other three got behind her and did every signal in existence to tell Ruby to say no, though to no avail.

"Uh, yeah, sure, whatever." The others almost fainted upon hearing this.

"Sensational! We can paint our nails and try on clothes and talk about cute boys!"

"Weiss, was this what it was like when you met me?"

"No. She seems far more coordinated."

"So…" Yang said, struggling to come up with a question. "What are you doing here in Vale?"

"I'm here to fight in the tournament."

"Wait, _you're_ here to fight in the tournament?" Weiss couldn't believe that Penny of all people would be in it.

"I'm combat _ready_!" Penny said, saluting for some reason.

"Forgive me, but you _hardly_ look the part," Weiss stated.

"Says the girl wearing a dress," Blake pointed out.

"It's a _combat skirt_."

"Yeah," Ruby said, showing up beside Weiss. The two proceeded to high-five.

"Wait a minute. If you're here for the tournament, does that mean you know that monkey-tailed… rapscallion?"

"The who?"

"The filthy Faunus from the boat!"

"Why do you keep saying that?" Blake shouted.

"Huh?"

"Stop calling him a rapscallion! Stop calling him a degenerate! He's a person!"

"Oh, I'm sorry. Would you like me to stop referring to the trashcan as a trashcan? Or this lamppost as a lamppost?"

"Stop it!"

"Stop what? He clearly broke the law. Give him time, he'll probably join up with those other Faunus in the White Fang."

Blake clenched her fist. "Ugh, you ignorant little brat!" She started to walk away.

"How dare you say that? I'm your friend."

"You are a judgemental little girl."

Yang walked up beside Ruby. "You wanna go somewhere?"

"Where are we going?" Penny asked. She got no answer.

"-so you admit it! The White Fang _is_ just a radical group of terrorists!"

"That's not what I meant and you know it!"

The fighting was still going on. Not only had they gotten back to their dorms, but now it was literally dark outside. And the two were still fighting. Yang had tuned it out. Ruby had no clue what to say nor what to do, so she didn't do anything.

"I don't understand why this is causing such a problem!"

"That _is_ the problem."

"You do realize you're defending an organization that hates humanity, don't you?" Weiss stood up. "The Faunus of the White Fang are pure evil!"

"There's no such thing as pure evil!" Blake was standing now too. "Why do you think they hate humanity so much? It's because of people like Cardin, people like _you_ \- that force the White Fang to take such drastic measures!"

"People like me?"

"You're discriminatory!"

" **I'm a victim!** You want to know why I despise the White Fang, why I don't particularly trust the Faunus? It's because they've been at war with my family for years. War - as in actual bloodshed. My grandfather's company has had a target painted across its back for as long as I can remember. And ever since I was a child, I've watched family and friends disappear. Board members, executed. An entire train car full of dust - stolen. And every day, my father would come home furious. And that made for a very difficult childhood." Weiss balled up her fist and slammed it down on the table. "You want to know why I despise the White Fang? It's because they're a bunch of liars, thieves, and murderers!"

" **Well maybe we were just tired of being pushed around**!"

It took everyone a moment to comprehend what Blake had just said, and the same time for Blake herself to do so. When she did, she ran. Opened the door and ran. Ran as fast as she could. However, she wasn't the fastest one there. She hadn't gotten ten feet away from the door when something had grabbed her arm. She looked over to see it was Ruby. "Let. Go!"

"No! I'm not just going to let you run off like this! We're a team, we solve our problems as a team! You running off won't help anything. We need you here, Blake. _I_ need you."

At hearing this, Blake stopped fighting against Ruby's grip. She realized what she was about to do, and what its consequences would be. "Ruby, I-"

"I don't care. I don't care that you were a part of the White Fang. I don't even care that you hid that from us."

When Blake looked at Ruby, she could see tears starting to well up in her eyes. "You… don't care?"

"No! You said you were a part of them, right? Were, as in you aren't right now?"

"Yes, I-"

"Then that's all I need to know. You're my teammate, Blake. You're my friend. I don't care what happened before. The past is done. But right now isn't. And right now, I need you here, not in the middle of Vale. Just… come back. I think Yang is already handling Weiss. We'll figure things out."

"Ruby, do you… really mean all that?"

"Yes! You've done so much for me, Blake. You were there to get Weiss off my back on the first day, and you got her to stop getting angry at me all the time for everything. You stopped me from falling on the airship when we first met. You're there to read our book every night. You were happy to share your own bed with me… There's almost nothing you haven't done."

When she put it like that, what Ruby had said earlier in the conversation made sense, all of it. "Fine… Lets go see what Ice Queen has to say."

Upon opening the door, they expected Weiss to start screaming once more. However, that did not happen. Instead, she was laying in her bed, ignoring all of them. It was probably for the better. It had already been a long day, and they figured they might as well follow suit. Nothing else good was going to happen. Sleep was the best - and pretty much only - option, though they both doubted any actual sleep would occur. Too much had happened, not to mention the uncertainty of tomorrow. Whatever happened next, happened. That was how things would have to go. One thing was for sure: none of them were eager for the following day, but they would have to confront that eventually.

 **AN: So, there you have it. Chapter five is done. This is my longest chapter yet by pure word count. On a side note, Volume 1 is now wrapped up (yay(?)). The next chapter will take place between the first two Volumes, but Volume 2 will be reached before too long. As always, follow/favorite/review/whatever else you wanna do if you haven't already, and if you have, thanks. Anyways, I shall see you guys in a few days. Adieu for now.**


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: First things first: No, this story is not dead. That being said, if I had to guess, you guys are probably wondering where the fuck I have been. The answer? Wayyyyy too fucking long to explain. It'd be half the words of the chapter if I explained everything. Some of the more notable things include: getting braces, getting an ear infection, ear infection resurging in my first few days of having braces, friends which I haven't seen in forever coming into town for a week, school starting up, and a writer's block. But, I am back. My upload schedule is probably gonna be one chapter every weekend (Friday-Sunday because 3 day weekends every week ftw). No set day. Anyways, all that said, I'll stop my rambling and get onto the chapter.**

Sleep was a fleeting thing for many people. However, this especially rang true for Team RWBY after Blake's reveal. The dead silence was unnerving. The slightest noise could be heard. All of them were either deep in thought or emptied their minds in an attempt to catch at least a tiny amount of sleep - sleep that was never going to occur. By the time sunrise came (a good two hours before classes started), they realized any attempts at anything resembling sleep would be futile. Needless to say, it was going to be a long day.

When they finally arose, nothing of importance happened. Yang, for once, wasn't trying to blow out her own ear drums with her music. Weiss was… Weiss, but even she normally wasn't this solitary. No reading occurred for Blake and Ruby - though it wasn't Ruby's fault. Blake evidently wanted to be left alone. Ruby just did random things on her scroll to pass the time. Not a single word from any of the four broke the silence.

Later on, Weiss got up and made her way to the shower. By the time Yang realized this, the door was already locked. Surprisingly, she still got up though. She didn't say a word, but exited the dorm for something.

"Ruby."

Hearing a word for what seemed like the first time in ages made the younger girl come close to jumping out of her skin. "Y-yeah, Blake?"

"About last night…"

"Look Blake, I understand why you kept it a secret and-"

"No, not that. We'll handle that later. I'd… like to know something."

"Okay…"

"When I was about to run off and you stopped me... what exactly were you trying to say?"

"Oh, um…" Ruby's cheeks went red. She finally realized how what she said must've sounded… Not that it wasn't somewhat intentional. "I mean… Pretty much exactly what I said. This team just wouldn't be the same with you gone. You're important, Blake. I don't care what you were apart of, I don't care what you did. I know who you are now, and that's all that really matters to me."

"...and who _am_ I now?"

"A girl who's been there for me ever since I've known her. A girl that loves the same books as me. A girl that went out of her way multiple times to fix problems I couldn't. A girl with cute cat ears. A girl…" Ruby seemed to really hesitate. "...that means a lot to me."

"I… what?" Blake wasn't sure if she's heard the last part right, and, if she had, if it meant what she thought it had meant.

"Blake, when I first came here, I was terrified. I was at least two years younger than everyone else here. The only person I knew was Yang, and I hate meeting new people. You're the only exception to that. There were no awkward conversations that usually come with meeting new people. There was nothing like that. It was just… normal. And that made me happy. _You_ made me happy. You still do."

"Ruby… What _exactly_ are you saying?"

"I… Blake, look. Ever since I got here, you've been here for me. We've been here for each other. You… you matter to me. A lot."

"Ruby, are you… saying what I think you're saying?"

"Um…" Ruby's cheeks went redder than humanly possible. That, mixed with her silence, was telling.

"In that case…" Blake looked Ruby straight in her eyes. "I feel the same way."

"You… you do?"

"Yes. Is that so surprising? We sleep in the same bed as each other. One of us usually ends up with their arm around the other. We're pretty much inseparable."

"When you put it like that…"

"Exactly."

"So… What're we gonna do?"

"I guess we'll just… see how things go. See what happens."

"Alright."

As they were about to continue their conversation, the door opened and Yang stepped through. Blake gave Ruby a 'We''ll continue this later' look. Ruby nodded.

"You two seem to be in better spirits."

"Uh… yeah…" Ruby replied

"Alright, might as well get this out of the way… Blake-"

"Yang, I-"

"Listen. I'm not really mad. I just… just wish you would've told us. We could've talked it out or something, instead of it ending up like this. You're my teammate. My friend. As long as you're not working for them anymore, I don't have any good reason to be mad. Just… next time anything like this comes up, talk to us. Also, I like your cat ears. They're kinda cute."

"Hate to agree with my big sis, but she has a point," Ruby said with a smirk.

Blake blushed at hearing Ruby say this. It was one thing to bear that from a friend, but it was another to hear it from her crush (or was it girlfriend now? They were gonna have to figure that one out).

"So… now that we're all good for the moment…" Yang said, trailing off.

"Ice Queen?" Blake asked.

"Yep. I'll see if I can handle her. No promises though."

"Are we just gonna wait on her, then?" Ruby asked.

"Think that's all we _can_ do," Yang replied.

Weiss' shower was long. Abnormally long, even for her standards. No one could blame her. She had far too many things to sort through in her mind - along with some other 'problems'. In the end, she realized she had to end her disconnect from the world and return to it.

After a time period even she didn't want to take a guess at, she reluctantly ended the shower. The water hissed to a halt, and she immediately regretted her decision. The cold air sent a chill down her spine. She dried herself off, then did her hair and the rest of her morning ritual. When she was satisfied (or, at least as satisfied as she was going to get), she exited the bathroom.

Now, there were many things Weiss would've expected to see. The other three sitting in their beds, fidgeting with their scrolls, pretending the rest don't exist? Maybe. Blake being out of the room, not wanting to deal with the rest? Likely. Everyone yelling at each other? Sure. But this… not in a million years. Instead of doing what most people would do with a traitor in their midst, they were doing the complete opposite. Sitting on Blake/Ruby's bed, chatting like nothing had happened. Seeing this put a scowl on her face. She just stood there, staring.

"Uh, Ice Queen… You okay?"

"Me? I'm fine. Just wondering why you're all buddy-buddy with _the traitor_ , Yang." Weiss' words practically seethed venom.

"Weiss…" Yang said, jaw clenched.

"No! She hid that from us! How do we know she's not _still_ helping them? How?!"

"We don't."

Weiss looked over to who had spoken. It was Ruby, of all people. "What?"

"We don't know. But Yang trusts her. I trust her. You should too."

"Oh. So not only are you two just forgiving her, but you're trusting her after she's lied to us all year?!"

"Yes!" Ruby and Yang answered simultaneously.

"Fine!" Weiss opened the door and ran off to… somewhere. None of them had any idea where - not that they even cared at this point.

"That went well," Yang commented.

"Mhm," Blake mumbled.

"Don't worry; she'll come around. I'll make sure of it," Yang replied.

"So… what's the plan now?" Ruby asked.

"Classes start soon, so we should _probably_ start getting ready."

"Alright," Ruby replied, not moving.

"You… aren't gonna try to beat me to the bathroom?"

"Nah. Go ahead."

"Um… alright." Yang walked to the bathroom, noting Ruby's behavior as… odd, to say the least. She hadn't the slightest clue as to the actual reason, though.

"Blake?"

"Yes, Ruby?"

"How're we gonna do this?"

"Do what?"

"Us."

"Honestly...? I have no clue. You probably have a better idea than me."

"Um… what?"

"Ruby, I _am_ only two years older than you."

"We just gonna wing it then?"

"Can't think of any other way."

The night was much the same as almost every other. Weiss had returned - if only to shower and get some sleep. Yang was uncharacteristically moody, though Blake nor Ruby knew exactly why. Blake was a slight bit more upbeat than normal. Yang couldn't figure out why, but Ruby knew _exactly_ why. Speaking of Ruby, the teenaged Cookie Monster was her usual self. Some would say she was cheerier than normal; others would say that wasn't possible as she was already the cheeriest person in existence.

Yang had flopped down on her bed and fallen asleep almost instantly, not even bothering to cover up with a sheet or blanket, snoring loud enough to wake the whole of Vale. Weiss was asleep now, too. And, following the team's tradition, both Blake and Ruby were awake much longer than their counterparts. Pretty much nothing was new in that respect. And, when the two persisted long after they should've, nothing was new either. However, that's not to say the night was the exact same as those in the past.

When the two could scarcely keep their eyes open, they decided to call it quits. They didn't say a word, but the feeling was mutual: enough was enough.

As Blake put the book down (having made sure the page was bookmarked), Ruby yawned. Blake snuffed out their light source (her scroll, in this case). It was now pitch-black and dead silent.

"Night, Blake."

Ruby had expected to hear Blake telling her goodnight as she always did. When she didn't, Ruby assumed she'd just fallen asleep on the spot, so she expected no reply. Neither of her expectations were true. Instead, she felt a warm pair of lips pressed against her own. It might've only lasted a second or two; Ruby didn't know. For her, a second might as well have been an eternity.

"Goodnight, Ruby."

Much like the night before, sleep didn't come as fast as she would've liked. But, for totally opposite reasons. Her mind was racing, trying to sort through the endless possibilities. She knew she would be beyond tired in the morning; she failed to care. Blake was her girlfriend. Her girlfriend had just kissed her. That was all she cared about.


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: Let's see here… Monday night and only ~1200 words done for the chapter. Missed my own deadline again (maybe I should stop making them?). Yay. Oh, and school tomorrow. Yay again. It's gonna be a long night. And a long morning. And a long afternoon. Hell, it's gonna be a long 'next 24 hours'. But… what's new? I can't remember the last school night where I wasn't in bed a before 11:30-midnight for any good reason. The sane thing to do would be getting some actual sleep, but that's boring. Might as well do something constructive with my time, eh? Anyways, here's Chapter 7 of I have now goddamn clue how many more. Most likely a lot. Follow/favorite/review/whatever-the-hell like you guys always do. Now, onto the sole reason you guys are here.**

Team RWBY (along with the rest of Beacon) was still on their post-semester break. The third day to be exact. It was still somewhat early. Everyone was doing their own thing for the most part. Sparring, hanging out in Vale, chatting with friends… pretty much anything they wanted. Team CFVY was away on their mission doing… whatever they were doing. Team JNPR was down in Vale. Team RWBY was at Beacon. Weiss' mood had improved - if only by very little. Yang still wasn't her normal self for some reason, though she managed to be normal enough around Blake and Ruby.

Speaking of the lovebirds, the brunette whirlwind was somewhere on the school grounds, though Blake didn't know exactly where. Blake herself was heading back to the dorm to have a rather important conversation.

"Yang?" Blake asked, slowly opening the door.

"Yeah, Blakey?"

"There's… something I want to tell you." Blake seemed to hesitate even to speak that sentence

"...and that is?" Yang asked, now looking Blake directly in the eyes.

"How do I put this?" the Faunus asked, talking to herself. "Ruby and I are… we're... a thing now."

"Bout time," the brawler replied, simply.

"What?" Blake was sure her ears were betraying her.

"I said it's about time. Took you two long enough."

Same response.

"I knew Ruby was bad at figuring out her feelings, but you… Like I said: took you long enough."

"So you're _not_ gonna go all 'Big Sister Mode' on me?" the Faunus asked, still not quite sure her ears weren't broken.

"Oh, that'll still happen. Eventually. But honestly, I'm surprised it took you so long. I saw it from pretty much day one. Pretty sure Weiss had her suspicions, too."

"Was it _really_ that obvious?"

"Yep."

"Wow. You actually sound happy about this."

"I am."

"Um… what?" Yep. Her ears were definitely broken.

"Lemme ask you something: can you think of anyone here that's a better fit for her?"

"Um…"

"Neither can I. I've never seen anyone who I'd rather her be with over you. And I don't think I've ever seen anyone _she'd_ rather be with… even if she took forever to figure it out. So no, I'm not mad. I'm happy."

"This is _not_ how I expected this conversation to go. Not that I'm not grateful, but it's just… surprising."

"I figured as much… Just to get this out of the way, you hurt her; I break you. Not sure this would ever apply to you, but it's gotta be said one time or another."

"Alright."

"Okay, you lovebirds can go have some fun or whatever." Yang sighed.

The way Yang was acting struck Blake as odd to say the least. The usual unnecessary cheerfulness, the bad puns, all of it wasn't there at the moment. "Yang, what's bothering you?"

"Nothing."

"Mhm. Didn't you say we should talk about things as a team when something comes up?"

"I… yeah, I did."

"Okay. Seems pretty obvious to me something is definitely up."

Yang sighed. "Yeah, you're right."

"What is it, then?"

"It's… something I'd rather not get into. Nothing big; don't worry."

Blake sighed. "If it's nothing big, why can't you tell me?"

"Because I really don't feel like getting into it- not right now anyway."

"...and why is that?"

"You'll see at some point. Not now though."

"Uh huh. Whatever. I guess I'm just gonna go find Ruby or something."

"Alright. You two have fun. Just make sure you come back at some point. I still need to talk with Ruby."

"Will do." Blake walked to the door, putting a hand on it and getting ready to close it.

"Oh, and I doubt this'll do anything, but if you see Weiss, tell her I wanna talk. Just me."

"Okay." Blake walked out, closing the door behind her.

Blake, bored and unable to find Ruby, decided to head to the library to look for a specific book. She doubted it would be there considering its 'subject matter', but she had nothing better to do. Upon arrival, she saw a certain snow-haired woman.

"Weiss?"

Weiss looked up from her scroll. "What." She practically spat the word.

"Since I get the feeling you don't want to talk to me, I just have a message to deliver. Yang wanted to see you. Alone. She's back at the dorm."

Weiss actually looked at Blake this time, the scowl on her face slightly dissipating. "What'd she want?"

"I don't know. She just said she wanted to talk. Told me to pass the message."

"I- thanks." That said, Weiss got up and walked off. Blake found the dynamic between those two lately as… odd to say the least. But it wasn't causing her any problems, so she just went along with it. What else was she going to do?

After her conversation with Ice Queen, Blake decided to continue with her original reason for coming to the library. It took her a while, but she eventually found what she was looking for. It wasn't exactly easy to find - and for good reason, at that. But, she persevered nonetheless.

Making sure to keep the title hidden by covering it with her forearms, she sprinted back to the dorm seeing as how there was no place else to put it. Upon arrival, she noticed the lack of a certain blonde brawler (for which she was thankful). She managed to hide the book behind some others in her bookshelf in order to prevent the endless teasing it would earn from Yang should it be discovered.

With that done and over with, she decided to actually try to find Ruby. What good was a girlfriend if you never did anything with them, eh? Operating on that logic, she immediately set off to find her.

And, a good fifteen or twenty minutes later, she finally found the living embodiment of the Energizer Bunny in Beacon's courtyard. Not even a few seconds after the two caught sight of each other, Ruby superspeeded her way over to Blake, sending the latter sprawling on the ground, trapped in the former's nearly unbreakable bear hug. It would've been rather endearing to Blake were it not for the newly-formed pain in her back.

Seeing what her overdone burst of excitement had caused, Ruby immediately got up and offered the Faunus a hand. Blake graciously accepted, pulling herself up.

"Hey Blake. Where ya been?"

"Dealing with Yang. Dealing with Ice Queen. Trying to find something. Looking for you."

"Well, you found me."

"True. What've you been doing?"

"Nothing special."

"Hm… Alright. Anything you wanna do today?"

"I dunno. Maybe go down to Vale? Grab something to eat or something?"

"Ruby, are you… asking me out on a date?"

"Maybe. We _are_ girlfriends now."

"Okay. You got any particular place in mind?"

"Yeah. There's this place Yang would always take me whenever we visited Vale before we came to Beacon. It isn't far away from where the airships drop us off."

"Alright. Lead the way then."

Ruby started walking towards the airship landing station. The duo made random small talk along the way, but nothing of major importance was uttered. They made it just as one of the ships landed (Blake remarked something about perfect timing).

One twenty-minute airship ride later, the two were on the streets of Vale. People were going about their day as per usual. Nothing new there. No one particularly interesting could be seen. Just average people going about their average lives.

Ruby was, indeed, right about her restaurant being near the airship drop-off point. It was less than a five minute walk (normal walk, not Ruby superspeed). It didn't seem particularly remarkable from the outside nor inside. Seeing as how Blake had never seen anything bearing its name, she figured it must've been family-run.

Once inside, Ruby grabbed a seat near a window. A few minutes later, a waitress showed up. Ruby, surprisingly _un_ surprisingly ordered a plate of cookies (Blake was having doubts that her girlfriend didn't live solely off of sugar at this point), and Blake ordered something related to tuna (Ruby didn't bother to listen to the full order; she was too busy with the whole 'cat Faunus ordering a good cats typically eat' thing).

Blake could only chuckle when she saw Ruby had gobbled down five or so cookies before she'd taken the second bite of her own meal.

"So, Ruby, I have a question for you."

"Yeah?" Blake could barely make out her speech with an entire cookie crammed in her mouth. Nevertheless, she understood what the human had said.

"How long did you… know you liked me?"

"I… tough question. I think I started to figure it out a week or two ago, but I didn't actually know until you tried to run off and I stopped you. I guess me realizing I could lose you made me realize how much you meant to me. Deep down though, I think I knew from the beginning. Just never realized I did until now. You?"

"Um… to be honest, you preventing me from running off was probably it. Not that I was completely oblivious beforehand, but that was it. Guess Yang was right about us."

"Wha?" Ruby's mouth was, once more, full of cookies.

Blake realized she failed to mention to Ruby that she had told Yang about them. "Earlier, while you were out, I told Yang about _us_. Her response was 'about time'. Said we were terrible at figuring out our feelings. Guess she was right."

"Wow. I'm surprised. She'd typically go crazy on anyone who decided they wanted to be my girlfriend. Guess she actually doesn't mind you."

"Wait… you're… not mad?" Blake swore her ears were betraying her once more. Ruby simply had a look of nonchalance.

"Nah. Someone had to tell her. I was going to later tonight, but it looks like you've done my job for me."

"Guess I have."

The rest of their lunch consisted of random topics and, most often, Ruby attempting to speak while chewing an entire cookie or two. After they finished and paid (with the customary argument of who pays the bill), they returned to Beacon.

Upon their return to the dorm, they found Yang once again. She looked significantly happier than she had been previously.

"Hey, look who's back. You lovebirds forget about me?"

"Nah. We just didn't wanna hear your dumb cat puns or whatever you were plotting to do," Ruby replied.

"How rude. I do not make dumb cat puns," Yang stated, mocking an offended expression on her face with an extremely sarcastic tone. "I make purr-fect cat puns." She was smirking now. Said smirk was almost immediately wiped off her face by a pillow that Ruby had thrown. She was also knocked backwards on her bed.

"Hey Ruby, I forgot something. I'll be back in a minute, okay?" That said, Blake ran out the door. Yang immediately sat up, smirking more than before.

"So, how'd your date go?"

"What?"

"I can't think of any other reason you two would disappear, then return at the exact same time. Especially considering recent 'developments'."

"Yang…"

"Fine, I won't ask. Seems like you two are doing pretty well though."

"How couldn't we? She's _Blake._ There's like… nothing about her I don't like."

"Surprise, surprise. Anyways, I just have a few things to tell you before I let you go. First off: I don't care what you two do so long as I don't know about it. I _would_ say I did care, but it doesn't matter. You're gonna do what you're gonna do. I just want as much left to the imagination as possible. Got it?"

Ruby nodded.

"Okay. Other thing: if she's half as special to you as you make her sound, hold onto her. It's rare to find someone like that, and I'm speaking from experience."

"That's the plan…"

"Oh, and-" her voice rose in volume, "-Blake, you can come back in now." Nothing happened. "Blake!"

The door opened and Blake stepped through. Yang smirked. "Thanks for giving me and Rubes some one-on-one time."

Blake nodded. Ruby then stared her in the eyes, wondering what Yang was talking about. Slowly, she pieced everything together on her head. When it finally clicked, she just looked back and forth between the two. "You…"

"Yep," Yang responded, still smirking. "Don't worry. I never told her what I was going to say. That entire conversation is between you and me until you decide to tell her."

"Right…"

"Hey, I had to talk to you at some point."

"Mhm."

"Whatever. Now, unlike Blakey here, I _actually_ have something I need to do. So, I'll be back later. You two do whatever."

"Okay, see ya," Ruby replied.

"Bye," Blake said, her voice monotone as ever.

"Wonder where she's going." Ruby saif once Yang was out of the dorm.

"Probably nothing important."

"Probably… You talk to Weiss yet?"

"Earlier. Yang made me her messenger; told me to tell Weiss she wanted to talk to her."

"Wonder where she is, then."

"No idea. Guess it's us two in here and those two out there."

The rest of the day had passed by much like the rest of any other. Nothing special to be seen. The only notable change was Weiss returning at a decent time for once, and Yang coming back a few minutes after her. The rest of the evening played out as per usual.

Blake, upon returning from her shower, saw Ruby writing in a binder she'd never seen in her possession before. When she questioned what she was doing, Ruby slammed it shut, muttering something about a surprise. The Faunus knew there was no way she was going to pry the information out of her, so she just decided to let it go.

Though Ruby's hand covered whatever was written on the front of the binder, some wording was still visible. The first line read " _-AY EVER"_ in rather sloppy handwriting, whereas the one below it was definitely typed. It said " _-ss's binder"._ Two angled red lines were over it, though neither touched. Blake's best guess was that they were part of an x.

Once Ruby had shoved it to the side, the evening, once more, continued as per usual. At a time that neither of them wanted to know, long past when the other two had fallen asleep, Blake turned the page. The re were no more pages after it. They had finally finished their first book. Blake seemed indifferent, but Ruby seemed slightly saddened.

"Aww, it's over…"

"Don't worry. I got us another one earlier. We'll start it tomorrow, alright?"

"Alright. We going to sleep now?"

"Yeah."

Blake reached over to snuff out their sole light source.

"Night, Blake." The moment after Ruby uttered that phrase, she felt a pair of lips press themselves against her own. This had essentially become customary ever since the first time it happened. The length always seemed to vary, but neither seemed to mind. They were simply content and happy for the moment pretty much every time. And, as with every other time, sleep soon followed.

 **AN 2: So, it's Tuesday. Last time any of us checked, Tuesday isn't Monday. So, you might be asking what the hell happened to the chapter being uploaded on Monday. The answer? I finished the majority of the chapter then just fell asleep. Here you go though. Also, this is first chapter to surpass 2000 words since Ch4 I think. Yay.**


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: So, I'm finally back. Yay. Where have I been? Pretty much everywhere but here. Don't ask why; even I don't know the exact answer. The next few chapters will be Volume 2. I don't know exactly how many, but V1 took 6 chapters (Ch7 was after V1, before V2, so it doesn't count), so I'd have to guess at least 5, at most 7. Don't quote me on that though. Also, the chapter that contains the dance (probably 10, maybe 9 if I feel like writing a lot) will most likely (99.9999999% chance) result in the rating of this story being changed from T to M. You know why. If you don't… I feel sorry for you. Much like the show itself, this story will not be all childish and innocent forever. If you were counting on that, (not) sorry to burst your bubble.**

 **Anyways, onto the sole reason you are here.**

The break was on its fifth day. It had been going rather well overall, but that wasn't saying much. A lack of classes was an almost guaranteed way to ensure things went well. Granted, 'overall' didn't mean it was going well for everyone, but having things like that was a near impossibility.

That said, things had been going great for both Ruby and Blake, though Blake's recent dynamic with Weiss hadn't exactly improved. However, everything had to change at one point, right?

As Remnant's sun was disappearing and the shattered moon was taking its place, Blake decided to return to the dorm. On the way, she saw one of the _last_ people she wanted to... Weiss.

"Ice Queen…" Her voice was low, almost a growl.

"Blake! Hey, I, uh-"

"What."

"Well, I _wanted_ to talk, but if you're just going to be like this…"

"Okay. Talk."

"Blake…"

"No, I'm serious. I just don't trust that you have anything good to say."

"Then you'd be wrong."

"Oh?"

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry about what I said about the Faunus. Sorry for what I said about the White Fang. Sorry for what I said about you. Sorry for being a judgemental brat."

"Okay…?" Blake definitely seemed taken aback.

"Okay?" Weiss repeated. "What, are you not satisfied?"

"No, I am. I just… didn't expect to be hearing that."

"I figured as much. Just promise me one thing."

"What?"

"That you are no longer- _in any way-_ associated with the White Fang or _anyone_ like them."

"I promise."

"Okay."

* * *

Crazy things were nothing new at Beacon. Not by a long shot. For many, though, this rather exceptionally crazy thing would take the cake. The last day of the school's break was upon the students. For the most part, it had gone like the rest. That _was_ until lunch, anyway.

Team RWBY's leader had been oddly absent for reasons which the rest of the team didn't exactly know. However, mid-way through their lunch, Ruby Rose showed up lugging around a rather oversized binder. She slammed it down on the table upon arrival. Near the top, the words _BEST DAY EVER_ in large letters- letters written with rather sloppy handwriting too. Below were letters were the words _Weiss's Binder_ , which happened to be crossed out with a red _X_.

"Sisters! Girlfriends! Weiss…"

"Hey!" Weiss shouted indignantly.

"Four score and seven minutes ago, I had a dream!"

"This oughta be good," Yang muttered, catching some food in her mouth that was thrown by Nora.

"A dream that we would have the most fun anyone ever had!"

"Is that my binder?" Weiss asked. "How long have you had that? It's been missing for like two weeks!"

"I am not a crook," Ruby responded, making the peace sign with both of her hands.

Blake though back to a few days ago when she had seen Ruby writing in a binder that looked _exactly_ like that one. "What're you talking about?" she asked.

"I'm talking about kicking off the semester with a bang!"

"I like to kick my semesters off with a _Yang_." The three of them internally facepalmed. "Ehh… Guys?"

Yang, not paying attention, got whacked in the face by another piece of food from Team JNPR. Fire burned in her eyes.

"Boooooooooo."

"Look, guys, it's been a good two weeks. And between more exchange students showing up and the Vytal festival at the end of the year, our second semester is going to be great! But classes start back up tomorrow, which is why I've taken the time to put together a bunch of wonderful events for us today."

"I don't know whether to be proud, or scared of what you have in store," Weiss responded. Yang threw a green apple in the general direction of Team JNPR as hard as she could.

"I dunno guys." Blake mumbled. "I think I might sit this one out."

"Sit out or not," Weiss said, "I think however we spend this day, we should spend it as a team. I, for one, think that-" She was cut off by a pie slamming into her face. Everyone looked over to who threw it. Nora was pointing at Ren. Ren was hunched over with his hand covering his face. Pyrrha had a look of utter shock on her face. Jaune facepalmed.

Team RWBY all looked at each other, then at Team JNPR. They all had the same thought process and the sane look on their face: this means war.

None of them were sure how it had started, but that wasn't exactly at the forefront of their minds. Team JNPR had stacked multiple tables, each of them standing at varying heights on it. Nora laughed maniacally. The rest just stood and waited, forcing their opponents to charge.

As soon as Team RWBY made a move, a rather ridiculous amount of watermelons were sent flying at them.

"Yang! Turkeys!" Ruby shouted. Yang nodded, darting forward. She did a sort of combat roll to avoid one of the numerous melons headed at her face, then grabbed two turkeys and used them to emulate Ember Celica. She then charged forward, punching anything and everything out of her way.

Blake showed up behind her, grabbing a few pieces of bread that were probably hard enough to break a Nevermore's jaw. Her and Yang then continued the charge, Blake eventually going after Pyrrha.

Her shadow clones came in handy, but even they couldn't save her from Pyrrha's sheer skill. Blake eventually dropped back to charge- to her own detriment. Pyrrha stopped her in her tracks, using one of the pieces of bread as she would Milo.

Ruby wasn't far behind however. The brunette was practically surfing along the tables on a metal platter. She jumped at Pyrrha, but the latter merely shoved her off. She flew behind Weiss.

Ice Queen grabbed some ketchup, squirting it all out on the floor, creating a slip-n-slide for Ren, causing him to fly back. His impact sent multiple tables flying in the air.

Nora seized the opportunity, humping from one flying table to another, eventually latching onto a metal rod and breaking it off the ceiling. She landed, then speared it into a watermelon to use as a hammer of sorts. She set her sights on Weiss, but Ruby took the hit.

This caused the heiress to grab a swordfish and go after Thor's long-lost sister with it. A short battle ensued, resulting in Weiss being thrown back and slamming into a pillar. It came crumbling down, but she was saved by Ruby. However, it appeared she was unconscious for the moment.

"Weiss! Don't leave me! Nooooooo!"

Seeing the heiress' current state caused the typical battle fury-filled fire to return to Yang's eyes. She grabbed the turkeys once more, going after Ren.

Ren responded by grabbing some sort of vegetable and charging at her. He did well on defense, but the upper hand was never his. In an attempt to gain it, he jumped up and threw them down at her. She jumped to an equal height and slammed her fist down on his back, sending him to the ground and incapacitating him.

Nora, angered by this, charged Yang, resulting in the brawler flying to the ceiling, breaking a hole in the roof, and falling back down. Nora's hammer was useless now. Blake had to dodge the falling rubble.

The cat Faunus proceeded to grab something resembling a whip that Nora couldn't quite make out. She sent Nora feeling backwards with it into a few vending machines. An uncountable amount of soda cans fell out.

Nora decided to use these similar to her own grenades, launching them at Blake. The Faunus dodged them, doing multiple backflips in the process.

Simultaneously, Pyrrha was regaining consciousness. Using her Semblance, she levitated the soda cans- every last one of them- and sent them flying at her opponents.

Ruby responded- to devastating effect. She used her Semblance to start a whirlwind/vortex thing and reversed the direction of the soda cans. Team JNPR just looked onward in shock. Their fate was inescapable, though.

Ruby's vortex pinned them against the wall. Even Pyrrha couldn't withstand the force. Every food and drink in the room flew at them. When it was all said and done, the wall was a mashup of neon colors. The only way anyone on Team JNPR was discerned was by them falling to the ground.

Team RWBY's fun (and Team JNPR's agonizing defeat) was destined to end, however. The doors to the cafeteria slammed open and Goodwitch stepped through. Her face and the way she walked revealed a sole emotion: fury. Pure, unadulterated fury. She immediately set to work on repairing the damage via her Semblance. Tables returned to their former locations, stone levitated to repair the roof, and the brights stain on the wall disappeared.

"Children, _please_ don't play with your food." While her reaction was rather calm, her voice and mannerisms indicated she was using an unholy amount of effort to avoid screaming at them. They all nodded and quickly moved away as Ozpin entered the room, omnipresent coffee mug in hand. He started speaking to Glynda, though the two teams were now too far away to hear what about.

Team JNPR and Team RWBY quickly separated, heading off on their own prerogatives. Eventually, they were back at the dorm, having been discussing every detail of the fight since they left the cafeteria. However, there was one that stuck out in Ruby's mind a little more than the rest.

"Yknow, Yang, you seemed just a _little_ protective of Weiss back there. Like, we all got hurt, but once she did, you went ballistic."

"Yeah, well, she's my teammate." Yang stammered through her sentence a little, and she definitely sounded as if she had more to say.

"I'm your _sister._ "

"I- I…" Ruby started laughing. Yang was _never_ at a loss of words; in fact, she never shut up. There was _definitely_ something up with her, and Ruby had a pretty good idea of what. Both Blake and Weiss soon caught on to what she was implying.

"Ruby, are you saying what I think you're saying?" Weiss asked.

"Is it not blatantly obvious?" Blake replied.

"Fair point. But I will have you know that, unlike you two, we are not in a relationship and I have to doubt we will be."

"Mhm," Ruby replied. Blake rolled her eyes. Weiss scowled. Yang failed to meet their eyes, instead fidgeting on her scroll. A few minutes later, Weiss' scroll buzzed, and she rushed out of the dorm without explanation.

A few minutes passed before conversation started up again.

"So, Yang," Ruby asked, "something tells me I'm right about what I said earlier."

"Ha! You wish."

Ruby smirked. "Look me in the eyes and say that."

"Why should I?"

"Because if you don't, you're proving my point."

"Alright." Yang's eyes met Ruby's. "Ruby, I am-" she was interrupted by her scroll buzzing. "Huh…"

"What?"

"Pyrrha wants to talk about something. Didn't say what." Yang immediately got up and rushed to the door, thankful for her escape.

"Wait, you didn't-" Ruby was cut off by the door slamming behind Yang. Ruby sighed.

"At least we get the dorm to ourselves for a few," Blake stated.

"Yeah."

Blake sat down on their bed, Ruby following suit.

"So, do you really think there's something between them?" Blake asked.

"Dunno. But I know there's only one reason Yang would act like this; I've seen it before."

"So it depends on Ice Queen, then."

"Yep. Least we already have ourselves figured out."

"Agreed."

"Honestly, I dunno what I'd do without you, Blake. Beacon's awesome and all, but now you're the reason I wanna be here."

Hearing those words made her feel too many emotions to count. Happiness, mainly, but there was something beyond that. Trust. Fulfillment… _Love_. She had honestly been scared to admit that last one to herself. Relationships rarely lasted as long as one would wish, but ones from those in their age group lasting that long were _almost_ unheard of. She had hoped that they would be the small sliver of the _almost_ \- the part that wasn't destined for failure. But hearing words like that washed all of her doubts away. Even now, she knew the future would hold it's unknowable trials, but she was confident they would stand victorious.

Sorting out her thoughts and snapping back to reality, she looked to the girl before her. The human embodiment of happiness and passion. And looking into those silver eyes, she knew Ruby felt, at the very least, remotely the same way she did.

On pure impulse, she reached forward, pulling Ruby into a long, drawn out kiss. Blake's lips burned with fiery passion, and, though she caught Ruby off guard (be it from the suddenness of her actions, or from the sheer passion and intensity she exerted), the younger girl returned the kiss with the same intensity. When they finally parted, it was not out of will, but out of need for air.

Their breathing was heavier than before; whether it was from their oxygen deprivation or from the psychological aspect of what they had just done was not apparent. Blake guessed it was a mix of the two.

"Blake… I… Wow…" Ruby panted, attempting to regain her breath.

Honestly, Blake was stunned. This was far from her first kiss with a girl, even further from her first in general. But there was something special here. Ruby, inexperienced as she was, made her emotions clear as day: she wanted Blake- more than almost anything. And, in their current position, Blake was unwilling (practically unable) to do anything besides oblige.

"Ruby-" she was cut off by a breathtaking pair of lips. This time, to her surprise, Ruby took charge.

In her previous relationships, she had never been the dominant one, so this was more akin to her past experiences. For Ruby (who Blake doubted had ever been in anything even resembling a serious relationship before), taking charge and being in control of anything major was odd. But this definitely took the cake. Nevertheless, this did not discourage her.

By the time the kiss was over, much like the last one, they had no idea how long it had lasted. While it was most likely mere seconds, it felt like a miniature eternity.

By the time they were in the middle of their third one, the door flung open and they heard Yang's voice saying: "Hey guys, I-", then she stopped dead in her tracks, staring at them, unable to form words. They broke the kiss, staring back as well.

After a few seconds (which felt like hours), Yang decided to speak again, her voice uneven. "Oooooookay then… I'm just gonna grab something, then let you guys get back to it." She went over to her bed, fidgeting with something which the duo didn't bother to look at, then left, saying, "Uh… have fun I guess. Bye."

* * *

Some time later, Weiss arrived back at the dorm, followed by Yang a few minutes later. They struck a conversation immediately, but the only part where Blake started listening was when Ice Queen said, "Sounds like you two were having fun earlier."

Blake's cheeks went red, as did Ruby's. The former tried to speak, but it came out jumbled and incoherent, so she didn't even bother. Ruby replied with a simple, shameless "Yep", much to the heiress' surprise. She figured Ruby would end up worse than the Faunus.

Speaking of the Faunus, Blake, silent though she was, wasn't too stunned to think. And, while she was deep in her thoughts, she thought of one thing in particular: how did Weiss even know? She supposed Yang could have texted her, by how? Was she not busy with Pyrrha? And would Weiss even have read it when she was busy with… whatever she was doing? It was plausible, but not exactly likely. Then she thought they might've met up in the halls. But they couldn't have, as they arrived at different times. Maybe one of the teachers pulled Yang aside, thus why she was late? But why would they? It was still break. She knew something was up, but then she thought maybe she was reading into it too hard. Eventually, she shoved it to the back of her mind.

* * *

Exhausted from the food fight earlier and realizing classes started back up the next day, they all decided to go to sleep earlier than later. As such, they went through their nightly rituals (once again making sure Yang was last to get to the shower) as per usual.

Once they had all climbed in their respective beds, Blake pulled out her book, careful to hide the cover from prying eyes (mainly Weiss' eyes since Yang crashed almost immediately like she always did). Ruby had received a talk from Blake about this not exactly being a childish book, though she had been very vague on what exactly made it non-childish. Ruby didn't think much of it and went along with it anyway.

Thus far, nothing major had occurred, but she got the feeling it wouldn't stay that way for long. When they finally decided they actually needed some sleep, the Faunus closed the book and set it in her book case, making sure the binding wasn't facing outwards where the other two might see it.

Drifting off to the warm embrace of sleep (while in the warm embrace of her girlfriend), Ruby foresaw the endless teasing from Yang that was surely going to ensue. Blake simply looked past that and to the future. She sensed something big was about to happen, something that would test all of their limits. But she also saw bright future beyond that. For once, the moody, antisocial introvert had true happiness on her kind, and it was said happiness that was her last though as sleep overtook her.


	9. Chapter 9

**AN: So, you might be asking how I go from putting out two chapters a week to one chapter a month. The answer? School and my PC basically telling me to fuck off for a while… which was just wonderful, by the way. Nevertheless, I have returned. Hopefully my updates to this story will become more of a common occurrence now that I have things mostly back in order. In case any of you are feeling worried, as of now, I have absolutely no intention of letting this story die. It's fun to write and gives me something to do with my time that isn't PUBG or R6S or failing at guitar. Anyways, since you guys have been waiting for so long, I'd rather not drone on and on here and start with the actual story.**

"Hey Adam?"

"What." The incessantly-angry Faunus spat.

"We found an old friend of yours."

"Who?"

"Come look."

Adam walked over to his underling, staring intently at the man's monitor for a second. When he saw the man's face currently displayed, his face contorted into a twisted smile. "Where is he?"

A few seconds later, another screen appeared, showing a map of Remnant. A small landmass was highlighted. "Do you know where he is _exactly_?"

"No. But that area isn't large and settlements are sparse. It won't take us long should we move in."

The twisted smirk on Adam's face grew even wider. "This'll be fun."

"Should we send in some men now?"

"No. We have bigger problems. Besides, I know a much better time to enact this. Keep that on file though. If he goes anywhere, track him."

"Got it."

"Roman?"

"What is it?" the thief replied in a bored, exasperated tone.

"Someone sent you a message. ID was blocked."

"Let me see it," he replied, his tone still the same. A few moments later, his scroll buzzed in his pocket. He grabbed it, searching for whatever it was that he had just been sent. Eventually, he found message that read:

 _ **Roman. Schnee Dust freighter. Vale harbour. Arriving 10pm tonight. Call Adam. Get his men. Be there. And make sure to make good use of my little present.**_

 _ **-C**_

"Wonderful. That stubborn old bull is just gonna love this."

"So Ruby, Yang told me you and Blake were having a little fun yesterday."

"Yang…" Ruby growled, shooting a glare of daggers in the brawler's direction.

"What, you expect me not to tell her?"

Ruby clenched her fists in an attempt to prevent herself from flinging the nearest object at Yang's face.

"It's okay Ruby. Unlike Yang, Weiss doesn't strike me as the type to hold it over your head," Blake said.

"Yeah, good point."

"So she wasn't lying, then?" Weiss asked.

"No. She wasn't," the Faunus replied with a sigh.

"Ooookay then."

"Speaking of relationships… Yang, when are you gonna spill it?" Ruby asked, a sly smirk on her face.

"Spill what?"

"You know what. There's only one reason you're like this and there's only one person that I could see causing that."

Weiss now failed to meet any of their eyes, instead staring at the ground. Upon seeing this, Ruby viewed it as an even greater affirmation of the obvious.

"Ruby, I swear you are going to pay for-"

"Hey guys. What's up?" The new voice cut Yang off. The entire team looked to the source of it. To their amazement, they saw the monkey Faunus they had met earlier hanging upside down in front of the window.

"'Sup." Once more, they looked around, eventually spotting a man with blue hair standing on a ledge next to Sun.

"Uh… Who're you?" Weiss asked.

"Me? I'm Sun. I think we met a little while ago." The memories of his antics with the Vale PD came flooding back to them.

"Uh huh. And him?"

"Oh, him? He's my bro Neptune."

"How did you guys even get up here?"

"I do it all the time," Sun replied.

"You _what_?"

"Yeah, I climb trees all the time."

"Okaaaayyyy… That doesn't explain him though," Weiss said, gesturing towards Neptune.

"Oh. He helped me up."

"So, what are you guys even doing here?" Weiss asked.

"Well…" Sun said as he jumped through the window, landing gracefully. "To be honest, we weren't exactly looking for you guys. But our friend didn't show up. So we figured we might as well find something interesting to do. You're pretty much the first people we ran into that didn't try to punch us in the face."

"So you just decided to eavesdrop on our conversations?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"And here I was trying to defend you a little bit," Blake said. "Then you do this."

"Aww, c'mon. You've dealt with worse."

Blake and Weiss both sighed.

"So, what are you guys even doing? Besides arguing over who's into who, anyways," Sun asked.

"Uh… That's kinda up in the air," Ruby replied.

"You guys heard about the Dust robberies?"

"You mean the ones that are all over the news?" Weiss asked.

"Yeah, those. They've been getting worse and worse every day. And I heard Papa Schnee has a freighter coming in tonight. Big one. Wouldn't surprise me if they went for that too. There's also rumors of some Atlesian prototype thing being stolen. No specifics. Think they're connected?"

"I dunno. It'd take a big crew to steal something like that. Atlas likes to keep their tech with them. But to steal Dust from a Schnee freighter, they'd most likely need something like that. That's assuming they're even going for it though," Weiss said.

"I wouldn't be surprised. They've gotten ballsier lately."

"They've pulled off bigger heists than that," Blake cut in. "Believe me; I'd know."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sun asked.

"I was once a part of them," Blake replied simply.

"You _what_?"

"Yeah. I ran off when I realized the path they were going down wasn't what they had once stood for. The reason I had joined in the first place was gone."

"So you think they're going for it?"

"I wouldn't be surprised if they did."

Weiss sighed. "Something tells me you guys will want to scope it out then."

"Is there a reason we shouldn't?" Sun asked. "I don't really have anything better to do."

"I agree with Sun. If anything, we at least need to know who's behind these attacks. This is their most likely target," Blake stated.

"Okay. We'll go check it out," Ruby said. "Any objections?"

Nobody said a word.

"No? Alright."

"Sun, when is it supposed to arrive?" Blake asked.

"Around ten o'clock, I think."

"Okay."

Sun was right. Sure enough, at 10pm exactly, a large freighter showed up in Vale's harbor. The closer the ship got, the more they could see. The ship itself was visible first, followed by the distinct outlines of its cargo. Visible next were some rather large turrets. This was not surprising. If successfully captured, its cargo would turn whoever was responsible into millionaires. Naturally, defenses were necessary. When it arrived, guards could be seen patrolling the deck. Lots of then. Though nothing bad had occurred or looked like it would, an air of unease had settled over them. Something just seemed… wrong, though They could not pinpoint the cause.

A makeshift bridge - large enough to fit a few cargo trucks side by side - was soon made to connect it to the docks by a crew that was waiting for them. A man approached the edge of the ship, looking down to the crew before him.

"Wow. You guys are early for once. The idiots they normally send are almost always an hour late."

"Guess that's why they hired us," one of the men on the docks replied. They weren't very far away from each other, but between the noise of the ship required them to shout. Luckily for team RWBY and their accomplices, this made the conversation very easy to hear. "You guys ready to unload?"

"Yep."

"Good. Can I speak to your captain? Schnee has a message for him. Didn't want to send it to his terminal due to possible interception."

"A message? Of what sort?"

"Wish I knew. He told me to keep it sealed."

"Hm…" The man seemed to be weighing the possible consequences of letting some random worker onto such a valuable shp, but eventually made a decision. "Alright. Just make it quick."

"Will do."

The moment the worker boarded the ship, two guards joined him in front and behind him, weapons in hand. When the light hit him, Blake could make out - just barely - the distinct figures of horns atop his head. Though all Faunus possessed night vision, the light he had been in before was too faint even for her. Seeing the horns, though, seemed to make her even more uneasy. She only brought this up when Ruby decided to ask her what was wrong a good five minutes later.

"Follow us. You move an inch out of line and you won't live to regret it. Understand?"

"Got it," the Faunus replied. The two men, armed with some sort of assault rifle, joined him, one in front of him and one behind him. The man in front started walking and the man behind hit the Faunus in his back with his rifle, telling him to get moving. He obeyed.

A few minutes of walking and an elevator ride later, the trio was outside a door in one of the towers overlooking the ship. "The captain is in there. Deliver your message and return, then we will escort you back."

"Heh. Will do," muttered the Faunus with an unsettling smirk on his face.

The door opened and he walked through. It closed behind him automatically.

"What is the meaning of this? Who are you? I wasn't aware Schnee hired scum like you."

"Oh, me? I'm a pirate."

"Very funny. Who are you _actually_?"

"No, I'm dead serious."

"What?"

"Yep. I'm a pirate, here to take your ship."

"Have fun with that."

"Oh, it won't be hard."

The captain's look of amusement slowly disappeared from his face. He reached down for his intercom to tell the guards to remove this scum from his ship, but was stopped by a gun aimed right at his head. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"Are you insane?"

The man ignored his comment. "The access codes to this ship: gie them to me or i will pry the from your corpse."

"Fine. Here." He threw something resembling a scroll to the Faunus. On it was displayed a code: 02-10-62.

"Thanks." He walked over to the captain's terminal. "Passcode?"

"092786."

The Faunus entered the code. It seemed the captain was not lying, as everything appeared how it should. He inserted his scroll into a slot on it.

"Thank you. Your services are no longer required." He aimed his pistol back at the captain's head once more, this time pulling the trigger.

"Uh, Blake… Something wrong?" Ruby asked.

"This isn't right," she muttered.

"Whaddya mean?" Ruby asked.

"The Schnee corporation is known for their racism against Faunus."

"So?"

"So the guy that just went aboard- he's a Faunus."

"How do you know?"

"I saw his horns."

"Oh. Maybe-"

Ruby was cut off by a single gunshot .A moment later, alarms were blaring. Blake thought her head was going to explode. Not long after, the previously blue lights cast by the turrets turned red. They immediately started firing. Not on invaders, but on the ship's own crew. They were running in terror, but to no avail. Every angle on the ship was covered by a turret. This was designed so that thieves would be couldn't hide. Now it was the guards who couldn't. Not a single one that they could see survived. When everyone was gone, the turrets returned to normal.

Moments later, the roar of Bullheads was heard penetrating the air. When Team RWBY and co. looked up, they saw what was practically a fleet of them. In the center of said fleet was an aircraft resembling a bullhead, just much larger. It was most likely the flagship. The majority of the fleet dove down to the deck and a few even landed. The rest stayed in the air as defense.

From the flagship fell a large mech of some sort. Everyone was wondering just what the hell it was, but Weiss soon recognized it as an Atlesian Paladin. But those were just in the prototype stage, right?

As men exited the Bullheads, cables dropped from the Bullheads above. The men were hard to make out at first, but the masks they wore betrayed their identity very easily. As Blake feared, it was the White Fang. Her fear changed to confusion, though, as whoever the controller of the mech was decided to speak up. His voice was amplified loud enough that, even over the ear-splitting roar of the Bullheads, RWBY and co. had no trouble hearing it.

"Ladies, what _is_ the holdup? We're not exactly the most inconspicuous bunch of thieves right now."

There was no mistaking that voice. It was Roman Torchwick.

"This isn't right. The White Fang would _never_ work for a human." Blake, blinded by rage, tore off towards the ship. The rest had no choice but to follow. Silently, the members of the Fang were being taken out one by one by Blake. The majority of them never saw it coming, as they were busy connecting the cables to the cargo containers. Ruby joined her in her mission, as she was the only other member of the team with anything resembling stealth. However, Blake was eventually discovered and a hail of gunfire was raining down upon her. Ruby swooped in and pulled her back to the rest of the team, but now they were pinned down. They ran from container to container, fighting when they could, but it didn't seem to be helping. They were far beyond outnumbered. Curiously, though, Neptune and Sun were absent.

"Hey Neptune?"

"Yeah?"

"Remember that guy that went to have a chat with the captain?"

"Yeah."

"Think he's still up there?"

"Maybe. Why?"

"Remember how the guns slaughtered the crew?"

"Yeah."

"Think he's responsible? Like, he did something to make it happen?"

"Probably."

"You wanna go turn their own plan against them?"

"Yep."

The duo, which didn't decide they wanted to commit suicide by running into a swarm of guys who hated them, wasn't even on the ship yet. However, with their plan devised, they made their way to the observation tower, using the enemy's distraction with Team RWBY to their advantage. When they got to the captain's quarters, sure enough, the faunus was still there. When he saw them, he went for his gun.

"Don't do that," Sun muttered, gun-chucks aimed at his head.

"What do you want?"

"Yknow that thing you did that, like, killed everyone?"

"Yeah."

"Think you could activate that again?"

"Why should I?"

"Because it's either your friends die, or you die. You don't strike me as the as the selfless type."

"You'll just kill me once I've done it."

"Nah. We've got bigger problems," Neptune chimed in.

"Fine. Gimme a sec."

"Here kitty, kitty," Roman muttered, flinging container after container out of his way to get Blake. However, she was faster than him, and he eventually gave up, instead going after a much slower target: Yang. However, when he got near her, he heard someone yell 'hey!' from behind him. When he turned around, he saw none other than Ruby Rose, sniper-scythe aimed right at him.

"Red! Isn't it a little past your bedtime?"

Ruby took a few shots at him. He attempted to chase her down, but her semblance always kept one ten steps ahead of him. Still, she had to keep moving pretty fast. During Roman's pursuit, her scroll buzzed in her pocket. Definitely not the right time for that. Once the buzzing ceased, it resumed a few seconds later. After this cycle repeated 3 or 4 times, she finally answered it, not even bothering to check who it was.

"WHAT?!"

"Hey, uh, you might wanna jump in the water. Like… right now." It was Sun speaking.

"Why?" As the words left her mouth, the blue light blanketing the deck of the ship was replaced by red. _Oh._ "Yang! Jump!"

As the barrels of the guns started spinning up, Blake felt something grab onto her, and next thing she knew, she falling. Cold water soon enveloped her. Weiss, realizing what was going to happen, grabbed Yang and spawned a glyph that flung the overboard in the nick of time. Screams pierced the air for the second time that night. However, one person was destined to survive: Roman. When the team looked up, they saw hs mech flying across the gap between the ship and the nearby land. Ruby shouted, "After him!" Weiss spawned a line of glyphs on the side of the harbor to lead them back to land as she had done for Ruby during the Nevermore fight. They all swam over and sprinted back up to land.

When they reached the surface, they saw Sun and Neptune a few feet away.

"Where were you guys?" Blake shouted.

"Saving you guys," Sun replied. The team realized it was probably them who caused the turret thing again.

"We'll talk about this later," Weiss said. "For now, we need to get Roman."

In silent agreement, they all charged after Roman who was currently busy flipping every car on the roads into one building or another. However, once they all caught up with him, he turned around, laughing. They noticed his mech barely looked damaged at all. They realized he had baited them and they had fallen for it. They then took off running as fast as they could. Roman followed, wreaking havoc on everything in his path. Eventually, they arrived on a bridge. This wasn't exactly good for them as now they only had one direction to go. However, they soon turned this around.

Ruby and Blake ran beyond the rest, telling Sun and Neptune to slow Roman down. Once there was a reasonable distance between them and their companions, Ruby jumped up on one of the many posts which lined the bridge. Blake got on the one opposite her and threw the blade of Gambol Shroud over to Ruby, who implanted it in the post she was standing on. Blake did the same on her side.

"Weiss!" Ruby shouted. Weiss immediately ran to Ruby and Blake. "We'll trip him up; you ice him."

Weiss nodded in agreement. Their plan worked, and Roman's Paladin was knocked off its feet. Weiss jumped on its chest, switching Myrtenaster's crystal to ice and triggering it, resulting in ice encasing its torso. Yang then sprinted and punched it full-force off the side of the bridge. It fell onto another, the ice breaking. They all jumped down.

When they reached the bridge below, the Paladin was already standing up. To combat its sensors, Weiss laid down a sheet of ice and Yang jumped up, then slammed down into it. It caused a large smoke screen, resulting in the Paladin's targeting systems becoming ineffective. Roman was searching for them, but they were nigh impossible to make out. As the smoke started to clear, he caught sight of both Yang and Blake, firing a shot at them. They both went flying, but almost immediately after, Ruy was flying at him and slammed her scythe into him. Weiss and Blake then went after his legs. They worked in unison for a few moments, but Weiss later jumped up and stabbed one of the mech's weapons, rendering it useless. They then jumped back and dodged his missiles thanks to Weiss' glyphs.

Ruby and Blake jumped at its left arm from opposite sides and struck it at its joint, severing it. Using the distraction to her advantage, Yang jumped onto its head and started punching it over and over. However, he charged forward through a support to the bridge above and into another, causing her to be sent flying into the second one. While falling to the ground, he punched her out of the air and through another support, then turned away to go after the others. When she recovered, fire was burning in her eyes.

Roman, surprised his barrage didn't do its job, went to punch her once more. Amazingly, she grabbed his fist and stopped it in its tracks. He tried to pull back, but it was too late: she punched it hard enough to shatter it. He kicked her hard enough to send her flying away, but Blake sent her katana flying to her, and Yang caught it. She immediately started sprinting and used the recoil of her guns to accelerate her even faster. Blake sent her flying straight into the Paladin which she punched as hard as she could. I caused a good amount of damage and sent Roman on the retreat.

Said retreat was ended by Ruby shooting Crescent Rose through Weiss' glyphs, resulting in the essentially being ice bullets. These latched onto Roman much like her ice from Myrtenaster did earlier, causing him to stumble. Yang the slammed into him once more, sending him back and to the ground, shattering the mech.

He stepped out of the wreckage, dusting himself off, muttering, "I _just_ got this thing cleaned."

Yang fired Ember Celica at him, but it was stopped by an umbrella-wielding in a pink and white combat skirt with pink and brown hair and eyes.

"Ladies. Ice Queen. Always a pleasure. Neo, if you would…"

Neo mockingly bowed. Yang charged at them, but when she made contact, they shattered. The roar of a Bullhead was heard overhead, and Neo and Roman were seen standing in it.

"They're probably fine, right?" Sun muttered in between eating his noodles.

"Probably."

"Think we should help them?"

"Nah. They're good."

"Okay. Don't blame me when they come back and chew our faces off then."

 **AN: ...aaaaand done. Longest chapter yet. I'd say that's fitting considering my recent absence. Sorry about that. Hell, only reason this is even done tonight is because Disposable Heroes told my wrist to fuck off for the night. Either of the main riffs from that song aren't exactly easy to play… yknow, 180 BPM 8th and, more prevalently, 16th notes and all. But, the chapter is done. Once again, when the next chapter is up, the rating is gonna be changed to M. And, once again, you know why. All you thirsty fucks are gonna be happy. It should be up up within a week. I'd be surprised if it took two. Anyways, adieu for now. Oh, and there's a little easter egg up in the section concerning the freighter. Props to whoever catches it.**


End file.
